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A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Female to Male Transition

Author(s) : Serena Heller

Reviews and Endorsements

Serena Heller has successfully extended the classical psychoanalytic position of benevolent neutrality and free curiosity from her psychotherapeutic work to her writing. The result is a much-needed book presenting a clear and clinical exploration of the psychic meaning and function of female to male transition. It will be an important source of reflection for any clinician working with transgender individuals.
Lionel Bailly, Honorary Associate Professor at University College, London, UK and child and adolescent consultant psychiatrist for the NHS

Coming to the question of female-to-male transitioning with a curious and open mind, Serena Heller makes a strong case for a psychoanalytic contribution to an understanding of gender ‘as it is lived now’. In return, she asks psychoanalytic clinicians encountering the ‘current gender climate’ to put aside rigid conceptualisations of gender and sexuality. This book approaches these complex and often contentious issues with admirable thoughtfulness, balance and respect.
Rachel Chaplin, Training Analyst, British Psychoanalytical Society

Serena Heller offers us a timely gift: a thoughtful, thoroughly researched, and balanced engagement with one of the most controversial subjects in contemporary times: transgender identities. Focusing specifically on trans men and drawing on her own research in this area, Heller manages to strike that difficult balance between the need to “unstraighten” the classical psychoanalytic understandings of gender whilst remaining firmly rooted in the best that psychoanalytic theory has to offer to help us to make sense of who we are. This is essential reading for all clinicians working with transgender individuals.
Alessandra Lemma, Fellow British Psychoanalytic Society, Visiting Professor, Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London; Consultant, Anna Freud Centre