On Psychoanalysis, Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation with Sigourney Award Recipient Psychoanalyst Dr. Jack Drescher

In this episode, I have the great pleasure to talk with one of this year’s Sigourney Award recipients Dr. Jack Drescher a psychoanalyst who has not only done significant work and research in gender identity and sexual orientation but has been personally involved in and responsible for changing the term “gender identity disorder” to “gender dysphoria.” We talk about the underlying theme of hiding that has been the story and the personal experience of many people who have differing and non-conformist identities and sexual orientations. Although Freud, the father of psychoanalysis as well as subsequent psychoanalyst schools and theories has been relatively open, accepting, and tolerant of different sexual orientations, the main perspective and orientation have been predominantly heterosexist and cisgender. As an opponent of conversion therapy, Dr. Drescher explains the significant harm and trauma caused by such unscientific, misguided, and futile “treatments,” which also reveal a general lack of understanding of the issues and situation. Moreover, he adds that many young people have become displaced and homeless by being rejected by or thrown out of their homes due to an overall lack of acceptance of their parents, their society, and their religious communities. Currently, the world is in a state of turmoil filled with anxiety and insecurity while a lack of dialogue and willingness to converse and hear differing viewpoints has created an impasse becoming fertile ground and fodder for mis- and disinformation often directed at minority groups like immigrants and LGTBQ people.