Record Detail

Thirty-one years after living full time as a woman, a
53-year-old skilled machinist returned to have therapy with me, a
psychiatrist, because of a decision to return to living as a man. As
our work together continued, I suggested to this would-be
published novelist that others might benefit from his experience.
This led to hispostingan extensive account ofhis life in September
2016 on Gender Trender. Now living in good mental and physical
health as a male, he has given me permission to discuss his initial
presentation, my understanding of his motivations, and to reflect
on the broader questions that his life rises for the field of
transgenderism. This report describes regret, defenses against
regret, and a dramatic 3-day catharsis followed by the patient’s
first loving relationship. Henow ironicallyreflects that he escaped
from the sensed inauthenticity of his youthful maleness only to
create a felt inauthentic feminine social psychological state. The
professional literature about the long-term outcome of the
transgendered who do not have surgery is largely nonexistent in
English. Anecdotal accounts, however, are readily accessible on
the Internet.