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4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
A great book Feb 05, 2009
By W. Torres
"Torrwad"
What some sort of psychiatrists and psychologists are doing nowadays, as others did in the past against people that have an unexpected self-perception of gender, considering pathological all that is not "expected" by old concepts, is a so big problem, for those who suffer all their lives due to these old concepts.
Winters shows that madness. The madness of these "fake gender experts".
A special book for psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors and sexologists, also for parents, teachers, for authorities, for all that are in power to manipulate the lives of others.
An essential work.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Could it be that the DSM-IV is unfairly biased against transgender people? Feb 22, 2009
By Joanne Herman
"trans author and blogger"
Could it be that: 1) The diagnoses that label trans people as mentally ill are based largely upon the opinion of a handful of psychiatrists imposing their view of what is socially acceptable behavior? 2) These psychiatrists base their opinion almost entirely on studies of their own patients without considering the large number of transgender people leading well-adjusted lives who don't feel the need to see a psychiatrist? 3) These psychiatrists are suspiciously relentless in challenging the credibility of anyone who seeks to challenge their opinion? 4) Their opinion ignores significant studies by other professionals showing that most individuals who transition genders have positive outcomes? 5) The diagnoses are written in a way that removes the mental illness label for a patient who undergoes reparative therapy (which claims to make an individual not trans) but not for a patient who transitions genders, even if the outcome is positive. And 6) Some of these same psychiatrists happen to specialize in reparative therapy and therefore have a vested interest in labeling trans people as mentally ill?
You'll be hard-pressed to see these statements as anything but true after reading Winters' painstakingly researched book. Winters documents how the DSM-IV diagnoses of the American Psychiatric Association came to be and why reform is needed. She carefully shows that the diagnoses are based more upon difference from societal norms than distress or impairment caused by gender dysphoria, thereby labeling all gender non-conforming individuals as mentally ill - even those not experiencing distress.
Winters demonstrates how this "official" word of the APA is then used to justify job terminations, lack of insurance coverage and other types of discrimination. Even the HRC Corporate Equality Index, which aims in part to end transgender discrimination in the workplace, inadvertently causes it according to Winters. The CEI allows a corporation to score 100% by offering mental health counseling as its only transgender health benefit, and corporations overwhelmingly chose this benefit over four others, Winters asserts, because the DSM-IV recommends reparative therapy for those who seek counseling.
Gender Madness is a must-read for those concerned that some of the psychiatrists who helped develop the DSM-IV diagnoses, and who have a vested interest in maintaining them, have lead roles in the development of the DSM-V to be released in 2012.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
**This book is incredible, please note that Hontas Farmer has close professional ties with those whom Kelley Winters exposes Feb 05, 2009
By Mindwalker
The negative reviewer below, Hontas Farmer, has a personal vested interest in trashing this book due to ties with "gender mad" psychiatrists whom Kelley Winters exposes and critiques in this book. This reviewer has behaved in threatening and intimidating ways to various activists in the past and a simple google search should reveal all you need to know about his conflicts of interest in reviewing this book. Having read parts of this book, I would urge you to read this amazing book for yourself and do not consider the negative review from Hontas as objective or accurate. It is precisely because this book provides a searingly incisive exposé of psychiatric violations of genital autonomy and the rights of trans and intersex people (some of whom have been manipulated into serving as collaborators in their own oppression) that the subjects of this critique have attempted to suppress its dissemination. Read and judge for yourself.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The madness is institutionalized Feb 05, 2009
By walksthetalk
"walksthetalk"
I agree with the two previous reviewers, Kelly Winters is spot on in her criticism of how the psychiatric institution in America ( also Canada ) has and is abusing transsexual as well as intersex people. These are not conditions to be treated in ways promoted by the Blanchard and ilk. It's not by being forced to touch one's own bit and that of one's therapist that one will suddenly cognite that they are " in fact " homosexual. Such witch doctor notions harm transsexual and intersex people and need to be denounced and stopped.
Huge applauds for this book.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Discredited Crackpots and Narcissistic rage Feb 07, 2009
By Dana Beyer
"Dana Beyer, M.D."
Discredited crackpots and narcissistic rage
Dr. Winters is the last person I know whom I would consider either narcissistic or rageful. Her book is well thought out, and flows in spite of being built from a number of blog posts (as if that would discredit the facts and analysis within). Her blog posts generated feedback which she used to create a more holistic work, one which puts the lie to the canards of the Toronto/Northwestern axis of transphobia.
Yes, Ms. Farmer, brain sex is important, even though Dr. Winters doesn't delve into that field. The medical profession, which five years ago scoffed at the concept of gender identity, now recognizes gender variance as part of the human condition. The work of Dr. Reiner in the NEJM, preceded by the research of Drs. Diamond, Zhou, Kruijver and others, has proven that our gender identity is seated in our brains. Where else, pray tell? Our genitals? That humanity thought that was true until recently is quite telling, but we do have the capacity to learn. Now that we've lifted the veil of secrecy, the cone of pediatric emergency from the births of intersexed babies, we can acknowledge the remarkable sexual and gender diversity of our species. Transsexual men and women are part of that diversity, whatever the etiology - be it toxic, chromosomal, genetic, epigenetic, hormonal or idiopathic.
Unfortunately the medical profession is a seriously conservative profession, and psychiatry even more, so discredited crackpots can and are left in positions of power. Dr. Zucker has done a great deal of research, so he is rightfully accorded the respect due his prodigious labors. It is up to the rest of us to expose the bias in that labor, to unmask the prejudice behind terms such as "homosexual transsexual," and to demand the follow-ups, such as those provided by Hannah Rosin the recent issue of "The Atlantic," that showcase the failure and cruelty of his reparative therapy. That therapy will be joining the gay reparative therapy of the NARTH crowd in the dustbin of history, and soon Dr. Zucker's ideology will be seen in the same light Dr. Money's was ten short years ago.
Worse is the work of Ray Blanchard, with its pseudo-Freudian methodology and romantic constructs such as autogynephilia. That a profession such as psychiatry, which is moving inexorably into the 21st century based on science, as longed for by Freud himself, would even consider a concept such as autogynephilia, is a disgrace. I believe the profession will refuse to grant this nonsense the time of day when the time comes to consider the update for the DSM V. It will be even more unlikely after President Obama signs into law a "gender identity and expression" - inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act next year.
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