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The "why do we laugh at people who want to be wolves when Trans" argument is matched only in its banality by its inexplicable resilience. That said, by exploring it, we can also learn a bit about why all of these other identities have popped up. As others have mentioned, there is a rich history of many different cultures from many different periods of time dealing issues of gender as a malleable, changeable thing. It is not some recent phenomenon, though to the disinterested observer, it might seem like it. Now, I'm not a neuroscientist even if I do know some of the basics of brain chemicals, but I am a psychology major. Mental health care can be a very tricky proposition because it is, with our current level of understanding, impossible to create a "cure" to a condition like a physician might treat a wound with antiseptics and stitches. When we can't rely on self-evident instances of recovery, we have to go by self-report, trends, and precedent. What that means is, in regards to trans issues, there is no magic bullet and we have to rely on our collective medical experience as well as what the patients themselves believe. In this case, our collective experience shows that transition is the best available treatment option. Of the hundreds of different ways physicians and psychiatrists have attempted to tackle this issue over the years, making the body the match the mind has proven to be both the most feasible and most effective. It is not a perfect treatment option, but in medicine especially, we cannot let perfect be the enemy of good. As an aside: sexual reassignment surgery is not a procedure everyone chooses to undergo, and if and when they do, it is typically at the end of a long process of less physically traumatic transitional steps. The old horror story of the middle aged man facing a midlife crisis, spending all of his money on a hasty and ill considered transition, and then deeply regretting it almost immediately has become more and more removed from reality as time has passed and younger people have begun to pursue this process earlier and psychiatric oversight has improved. When it does happen, it speaks more of the dangers of a lifestyle of instant gratification than anything else. So, now for the big question: what separates trans issues from people who want to be wolves, dragons, wolfdragons, and Benedict Cumberbatch? The big answer is actually kind of simple: the history just isn't there. While those who have felt like they would be better off as animals have doubtless existed for as long as human civilization has, they have never existed in as significant number and consistency as people on the trans spectrum. When these individuals do crop up, it is usually more appropriate to view their symptoms as a manifestation of a preexisting disorder. More importantly, People Who Want To Be Wolves has not emerged as a political group advocating for rights and recognition in any significant sense. If this were to happen, then I believe that a look into the medical and psychiatric history of similar symptoms would be in order. I am not intrinsically opposed to People Who Want To Be Wolves as long as that is what the best available treatment option is. Of course, given the logistical difficulties presented by Being A Wolf in comparison to a different gender, this does not strike me as particularly likely. Now, as for the teeming throngs (?) of confused teenagers on tumblr claiming to be the headmate of Shigeru Miyamoto's transNorwegian talking cat. People derive a sense of connectedness and stability from belonging to a part of a group, especially if that group is unique and special. It is hardly surprising that lonely children, when given a space to essentially say and do whatever, would make seemingly outrageous claims to make themselves feel less small and inconsequential. Some of these labels might have merit, or at least have enough potential to not be dismissed out of hand. A person of one ethnicity identifying as another, for instance, feels like a possible phenomenon that might legitimately happen in certain areas of the world. Most likely not one a middle-class white kid from Minnesota would experience, of course. The majority of these tumblr cases are easily explained as attention-seeking behavior with little basis in reality. Those that aren't should be deferred to a mental healthcare provider. The long and the short of it: an identity does not just spring from the aether fully formed. An identity without some semblance of history and cohesion is meaningless, and giving an identity meaning takes a lot more than moping around on the internet sharing imagined persecutions with your friends.
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Jun 22, 2014 00:10
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silence_kit posted:This is just a longer way of saying what I said earlier. The distinction between the "valid" and "invalid" identities is that the "valid" ones are more popular and more socially acceptable, and the "invalid" ones are not. Well, of course? Human society has progressed in this way since its inception. This is not exactly some great revelation. As our knowledge grows and solidifies, our attitudes and policies change to reflect that.
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Jun 22, 2014 00:32
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goatse.cx posted:I thought the nature of MPD is controversial at best. When has it been proven to be a real thing? Dissociative Identity Disorder, as it is now called, has always been a very... controversial diagnosis. There have been a few cases of some notoriety that exhibit the symptoms, but it is impossible to tell conclusively from such a small sample size. Regrettably, there's no pathogen to observe or physical trauma to the body, so the best we have to go off of are patient's self-report. DID is one of the rarest diagnoses in the field, even after expanding it to include a somewhat broader spectrum of behavior. More cases have been reported in recent years than the past, but that is true for an awful lot of mental illnesses- information (good or bad) is more readily available, meaning more visits to the local psych's office. So, in answer to your question, there have been documented cases of DID but the authenticity of the symptoms are truly known only to the patient (or patients, as the case may be). Blue Star posted:So a trans person isn't real unless they've been medically diagnosed? Can people self-diagnose themselves as trans? Self-diagnosis is somewhat intrinsic to the entire experience. Horrible, unethical people have made people's life decisions for them before, to disastrous effect. If after discussion and exploration of the subject the patient does not exhibit a strong desire or volition to transition, then it is off the table, period. Now, with that said: while self-diagnosis is virtually a necessity, it is still important to seek professional help for both your medical and mental needs. It is honestly quite uncommon for an individual to be "mistaken" about their choice, the real issue is that the transition process begs supervision. It is lengthy and it affects the body in profound ways, even if those ways are the desired effect of the treatment. Unfortunately, many people do not have a great deal of choice in the matter and don't have access to this kind of care. Someone's "authenticity" as a person on the trans spectrum is, however, not for doctors to decide. Also good luck getting your insurance to accept that manner of diagnosis.
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Jun 22, 2014 06:14
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Blue Star posted:Is it possible that someone can think that they're trans, but actually aren't? What if someone believes themselves to be trans, gets their brain looked at, and is told "Hmmmm. Your brain looks typical for your sex and birth gender." Does that mean that they cannot get HRT and/or SRS? Well, you bring up an interesting hypothetical. For what it's worth, I don't believe that transition should -require- a diagnosis, because there are always edge cases and people who don't have the insurance to see the necessary care providers but enough cash on hand to buy medicine that is really very cheap. I would never recommend an unsupervised transition, but the reality is that sometimes that's what has to happen and restricting that option accomplishes little. Further, I do not think that a specific MRI result is necessary for a diagnosis. People are very fond of trotting out that study, and for good reason, but it is far too complex of a phenomenon to be decided entirely by one structure in the brain. What if the opposite happened? It would ludicrous if, upon getting an MRI with that result, a cis person was forced to transition. As our understanding of gender identity and the biological processes behind it improve, we might be able to get to a point where there is a definitive test for, but that is a long way off.
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Jun 22, 2014 07:11
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