Transvestism and Transsexualism

Abstract

To the Editor:— I have seen and examined more than 300 transvestites and transsexuals during the past 14 years, and am at present engaged in active research on this problem with a number of collaborators, under a grant from the Erickson Educational Foundation. I have just published the first medical book on the subject, The Transsexual Phenomenon (Julian Press, New York). Dr. Hastings has given a clear and comprehensive summary, especially as to the management of transsexualism ( 197 :599, 1966). Dr. Barker is right in differentiating transvestism from transsexualism ( 198 :488, 1966), but he did not emphasize the fact that transvestism can be merely a symptom of transsexualism, which is a psychopathological condition, based on a disturbance of gender role orientation. According to recent animal experiments by Seymour Levine and Roger Gorski, transsexualism may indeed have a neuro-endocrine, prenatal origin, with transvestism as its most frequent symptom in later life.