Sam Winter calls for end to trans psychopathologization |
|
In honor of the 2009 Transgender Day of Remembrance, Dr. Sam Winter has just issued a strong appeal for the removal of gender identity variance from the psychiatric diagnostic manuals.
Time is pressing on in the psychopathologisation debate. The WHO and APA proceed in revising ICD and DSM respectively, the increasingly international STP-2012 (Stop Transpathologisation) Campaign gathers force, more and more research articles detail the links in the chain leading from psychopathologisation to illness and death, books on the subject (most recently Kelley Winters’ painstakingly careful analysis) get published..
The issue of psychopathologisation is of course a health issue, in that it is all about the view we take of transpeople’s mental health. But it is a health issue on many more grounds too. The psychopathologisation of GIV and GV engenders stigma, cultivates and/or supports prejudice and discrimination, contributes to social and economic marginalisation and poverty worldwide for transpeople, and is ultimately a health issue, raising the risk of poor mental health and well-being (and self-damaging and suicidal behaviours), social isolation, risk behaviours (including sexual), involvement in prostitution (often through lack of other employment possibilities), and HIV/AIDS risk.
Full article:
http://web.hku.hk/~sjwinter/TransgenderASIA/call-for-depsychopathologisation.htm
