Since the first sex-reassignment operation
in Denmark at the Rigshospitalet in 1951, a total of 37 patients, 29 males
and 8 females, have had sex-modifying surgery and a change in legal status.
In our experience a basic insecure gender
identity is a predominant trait in transsexuals, dating back to earliest
childhood. This insecurity and a concomitant anxiety are overcome
differently by the two transsexual sexes. In male transsexualism, the most
outstanding characteristic is a narcissistic withdrawal to a condition
marked by submission and pseudofeminity. Anxiety and insecurity are basic to
the gender dysphoria but are subdued by means of fantasy escape and
gratification in aestheticized ego-ideals with suppression of aggressive and
sexual feelings. This results in the often observed pseudofeminity in the
male transsexual.
A core group of transsexual males are
marked by a persistent pseudofeminine narcissism. They have stable ego
strength, are agenital in sexual attitude, and have an intact sense of
reality. This group is expected to remain so after sex reassignment.
The transsexual female assumes a
narcissistic, phallic attitude displaying outer activities and caricatured
masculine manners in an attempt to subdue her insecurity. Examples are given
of the characteristic splitting of these persons' phenomenological
ego-experiences and how different their reality testing is from that of
psychotic persons with a desire for sex change. Transsexual females are much
more sexually active than transsexual males.
We find a closer connection between female
homosexuality and transsexualism than between male homosexuality and
transsexualism.
Citation:
Arch Sex Behav 1982 Apr;11(2):133-55 an article published on the Internet by
PubMed
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/>
