Arch Sex Behav (2007) 36:117–118 DOI 10.1007/s10508-006-9128-1 BOOK REVIEW Exploring Transsexualism By Colette Chiland. H. Karnac Books Ltd., London, England, 2005, 96 pp., £9.99. Reviewed by Penny Lenihan · Peter Hegarty Published online: 30 December 2006 C  Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006 The idea that surgery can be used to help a transsexual per- son to change their physical sex and confirm their core gen- der identity is not only incorrect, it is “mad.” What then is the alternative for someone who comes presenting all the characteristic features of transsexualism? Psychological so- lutions, particularly psychoanalysis. In a nutshell, this is the thesis and recommendation that emerges in this short book. Chiland does not argue that psychoanalysis has all of the answers, but rather argues that it is a more fruitful domain to explore than surgery itself. By so arguing, Chiland positions herself at various points against the Harry Benjamin Inter- national Gender Dysphoria Association (recently renamed the World Professional Association of Transgender Health), the French government (which since 1992 has recognized change of sex in civil status records for those in whom the “syndrome of transsexualism” is present), and the vast ma- jority of transsexual people described in the book. Chiland acknowledges and emphasizes the appropriate- ness of medical interventions in relieving emotional distress and points to the evidence supporting them. However, she argues that, despite these interventions, the belief that an in- dividual can ever be anything other than their natally assigned gender and sex is erroneous. Transsexual people can live out their lives in the cross-gender role, but at some considerable cost, and in many cases self-delusion. This argument is cer- P. Lenihan () Gender Identity Clinic, West London Mental Health Trust, The Claybrook Centre, 37 Claybrook Road, London W6 8LN, UK e-mail: Penny.Lenihan@wlmht.nhs.uk P. Hegarty Department of Psychology, School of Human Science, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK tain to offend many, and is expressed more with an aim of being provocative than sensitive. One wonders whether the same ground could have been explored in a less objectifying and de-humanizing way. Widespread assumptions regarding the inefficiency of psychotherapy in changing gender iden- tity based on currently available evidence Chiland rightly concludes should not limit investigation and the extending of the ways forward for the individual transsexual person. Chiland then is an “explorer” indeed—rather isolated in a territory that she perceives to be more hostile than charted. Throughout the text, she signals a lack of familiarity with the diversity of the lives of transsexual people that often borders on discomfort. She offers a clear statement of her psychoan- alytic position in this cogent text. Her arguments, however, assume far too much homogeneity among the experiences of sexual and gender minorities. To write a chapter on “the transsexual mind” is reminiscent of those colonialist anthro- pologists who thought to explore “the primitive mind.” We also remain unconvinced by several widespread generaliza- tions in the book. For example, Chiland claims that all trans- sexual men reject the label “lesbian” because of homophobia. References to transsexual people as lying, hiding childhood experience, reluctant to relate sexual fantasies, and unwilling to explore options due to their “obsessive” focus on a “sex change” are simply outdated. Chiland expresses surprise that university graduates could be transsexual (p. 37), and disappointment that transsexual people do not write more on the meanings of masculinity and femininity (p. 48). Yet, there is no reference to influential works of trans authors as Bornstein, Denny, Feinberg, Prosser, Roughgarden, Stone, Stryker, Whittle, or Wilchins, all of which have much to say about the kind of category that gender becomes in its various manifestations. Towards the end of the book, Chiland de- scribes the “sex compass” as an essential tool that we must cling to in the face of transsexuals who put “our” assumptions Springer