We’re going to tweak the book-club schedule—thanks to @Steersman I realized that hardcover copies of Alex Byrne’s The Trouble with Gender book will not be out in the US until January.
This sounds like an interesting book. I saw a Netflix Documentary on refugee kids who fell into a "coma" due to trauma, including horrible events surrounding their reasons for fleeing their home country as well as the threat of being thrown out of their new country. It seemed that, once they achieved permanent citizenship, they often would come out of the coma. These comas have sometimes lasted for years.
While psychosomatic illness is "real," and causes physical symptoms, there is a huge distinction between this and the social contagion of gender dysphoria, which has no physical symptoms. It's purely psychological. That this purely psychological illness - whether caused by social elements or spontaneously occurring due solely to internal mental processes - is then treated by society pushing dangerous physical treatments is a crime of epic proportions. Using cosmetic procedures to "cure" a psychological problem seems to me an absurdity.
Because I understand that there are some people who have had those cosmetic procedures and were/are happy with them, I would not make such procedures illegal, nor would I ever call for discrimination against anyone who has had such cosmetic procedures in any form. (Notably, a man on estrogen does not suffer "discrimination" by being told he must undress with other men or compete in sports with other men.)
However, these cosmetic procedures should be called what they are - purely cosmetic procedures for those who want to look like the opposite sex and/or simply want to look more masculine or more feminine in appearance. They should not be covered by Medicaid or private insurance, and they should never be sold as a medical treatment for a psychological disorder. It goes without saying that they should never pushed on minors or vulnerable young adults with mental comorbidities.
Psychosomatic disorders might sometimes warrant physical treatments (for example, a feeding tube for the refugee kids in comas) -to treat the physical symptoms. However, that has nothing to do with treating psychological disorders with chemicals and surgeries.
Sorry. I had to vent. I just read my law school's latest magazine and found they are promoting laws (as in Georgia) that require Medicaid to cover these treatments. It makes me so angry!
Great comment re the difference between psychosomatic illness and mental illness! It’s a difference many miss.
A woman who develops the psychosomatic condition vaginismus (painful involuntary contraction of vaginal muscles during penetration) due to the psychological distress of being raped or a traumatic birthing injury, etc...isn’t faking her muscle contractions. They’re real, physical responses. The treatment would be 1. Touching and stretching/relaxing the muscles via physical therapy maybe in combination with Botox or muscle relaxants, to teach the mind that damage to the body is not occurring during penetration and therefore a pain response is no longer needed AND 2. Talk therapy for the mental/emotional component.
Versus
If a woman walks into a plastic surgeon’s office and says “I would like my inner labia cut off bc I am incredibly depressed over how big they are and the mean things my boyfriend says to me about them” the surgeon would be obliged, via the Hippocratic oath, to inform the woman that cosmetic surgery does not treat mental illness like body dysmorphia, nor does it address abusive relationship dynamics, rather it is performed for cosmetic preference, and to turn her away with a referral to a mental health professional by saying something like: “If you still want smaller labia once you no longer have depression, and have seen a relationship councilor or done exposure therapy for body dysmorphic disorder, then you can come back, (with a note from your therapist).” Obviously, many plastic surgeons that perform cosmetic surgery don’t operate according to the Hippocratic oath and prey on people with depression and anxiety disorders like body dysmorphic disorder (and it’s subcategories, like gender dysphoria).
One angle I feel we haven’t seen nearly enough from is plastic surgeons (we’ve heard a bit from endocrinologists) who might address this longstanding ethics issue in plastic surgery, bc it feeds straight into the gender medicine issue. Without plastic surgery and it’s long history of ethically questionable research (look up the history of breast-augmentation; TLDR: we wouldn’t have it today without mutilating exploited wartime prostitutes) would “transgender” and “gender identity” even exist as concepts?
This sounds like an interesting book. I saw a Netflix Documentary on refugee kids who fell into a "coma" due to trauma, including horrible events surrounding their reasons for fleeing their home country as well as the threat of being thrown out of their new country. It seemed that, once they achieved permanent citizenship, they often would come out of the coma. These comas have sometimes lasted for years.
While psychosomatic illness is "real," and causes physical symptoms, there is a huge distinction between this and the social contagion of gender dysphoria, which has no physical symptoms. It's purely psychological. That this purely psychological illness - whether caused by social elements or spontaneously occurring due solely to internal mental processes - is then treated by society pushing dangerous physical treatments is a crime of epic proportions. Using cosmetic procedures to "cure" a psychological problem seems to me an absurdity.
Because I understand that there are some people who have had those cosmetic procedures and were/are happy with them, I would not make such procedures illegal, nor would I ever call for discrimination against anyone who has had such cosmetic procedures in any form. (Notably, a man on estrogen does not suffer "discrimination" by being told he must undress with other men or compete in sports with other men.)
However, these cosmetic procedures should be called what they are - purely cosmetic procedures for those who want to look like the opposite sex and/or simply want to look more masculine or more feminine in appearance. They should not be covered by Medicaid or private insurance, and they should never be sold as a medical treatment for a psychological disorder. It goes without saying that they should never pushed on minors or vulnerable young adults with mental comorbidities.
Psychosomatic disorders might sometimes warrant physical treatments (for example, a feeding tube for the refugee kids in comas) -to treat the physical symptoms. However, that has nothing to do with treating psychological disorders with chemicals and surgeries.
Sorry. I had to vent. I just read my law school's latest magazine and found they are promoting laws (as in Georgia) that require Medicaid to cover these treatments. It makes me so angry!
Great comment re the difference between psychosomatic illness and mental illness! It’s a difference many miss.
A woman who develops the psychosomatic condition vaginismus (painful involuntary contraction of vaginal muscles during penetration) due to the psychological distress of being raped or a traumatic birthing injury, etc...isn’t faking her muscle contractions. They’re real, physical responses. The treatment would be 1. Touching and stretching/relaxing the muscles via physical therapy maybe in combination with Botox or muscle relaxants, to teach the mind that damage to the body is not occurring during penetration and therefore a pain response is no longer needed AND 2. Talk therapy for the mental/emotional component.
Versus
If a woman walks into a plastic surgeon’s office and says “I would like my inner labia cut off bc I am incredibly depressed over how big they are and the mean things my boyfriend says to me about them” the surgeon would be obliged, via the Hippocratic oath, to inform the woman that cosmetic surgery does not treat mental illness like body dysmorphia, nor does it address abusive relationship dynamics, rather it is performed for cosmetic preference, and to turn her away with a referral to a mental health professional by saying something like: “If you still want smaller labia once you no longer have depression, and have seen a relationship councilor or done exposure therapy for body dysmorphic disorder, then you can come back, (with a note from your therapist).” Obviously, many plastic surgeons that perform cosmetic surgery don’t operate according to the Hippocratic oath and prey on people with depression and anxiety disorders like body dysmorphic disorder (and it’s subcategories, like gender dysphoria).
One angle I feel we haven’t seen nearly enough from is plastic surgeons (we’ve heard a bit from endocrinologists) who might address this longstanding ethics issue in plastic surgery, bc it feeds straight into the gender medicine issue. Without plastic surgery and it’s long history of ethically questionable research (look up the history of breast-augmentation; TLDR: we wouldn’t have it today without mutilating exploited wartime prostitutes) would “transgender” and “gender identity” even exist as concepts?
VERY excited about this one!
Do we have a date for this yet?
Not yet! Wanted to send out scheduling once holidays were over. Will do this week.
I loved this book. So many parallels with ROGD. I hope we can choose a weekend time to meet!