Transgender Expressions and Psychosis: Towards an Ethics of Sexual Difference

Abstract

Psychoanalysis has a regrettable history of pathologizing non‐normative expressions of gender and sexuality; this tendency is even more prevalent with analysands who identify as trans. However, this has not been Jacques Lacan's position. In order to flesh out Lacan's complex intervention in the domain of transsexualism and to show his nuanced position that has often been misinterpreted, I will discuss three of his clinical interventions with patients presenting ‘transgender expressions’. Examining Lacan's work, I propose moving towards a differential clinic, a clinic where the diagnosis preserves the subjectivity of the patient and is a tool in the direction of the treatment and not a label. This type of structural diagnosis is not standardized but decided case by case, based on the particulars of each treatment.