Mental and bodily representations of gender identity in the psychological encounter: A comparative study between Spain and Greece

• Autores: Konstantinos Argyriou
• Directores de la Tesis: Eulalia Pérez Sedeño (dir. tes.), Dau García Dauder (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid ( España ) en 2023
• Idioma: inglés
• Número de páginas: 456
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Representaciones psíquicas y corporales de la identidad de género en el encuentro psicológico: Un estudio comparativo entre España y Grecia
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: Biblos-e Archivo
• Resumen

  • Contemporary psychological practice faces a history of trans pathologisation and gatekeeping. Epistemic injustice towards trans people’s first-person authority in assuming informed decisions has been promoted by mental health professions in general, filtering transness through gender dysphoria and full bodily transitioning. The encounter between psychologists and trans mental health service users has thus been mediated by diagnostic labels, biomedical protocols, performance expectations and standardised means of gender assessment, in a way that the actual relationship has been disregarded. Gender identity assessment in concrete has been influencing mental and bodily representations of both assessors and subjects. Psychometrics, projective techniques and clinical interviews have all participated in the overall feeling of distrust and enstrangement between the two parts of the counselling or therapeutic bond. Furthermore, research on trans healthcare is disproportionately Anglophone and US-centred, making Western contexts that are not Anglo-American seem like small-scale or copycat versions of the dominant one. The purpose of this study was to examine the mental and bodily representations of gender identity as they emerge from this dual dynamic. A conceptual framework focusing on the intersubjective configuration of meaning-making around transness was perceived as optimal for this examination. In addition, an up-to-date view of the therapeutic relationship, considering the intersections that arise in (not equidistantly) peripheral sites of the West or the Global North, seemed pertinent for analysis. Spain and Greece have been selected as two territories for a situated cross-cultural comparison on the matter, due to first-hand access and sociocultural particularities that allow space for exploration. Trans people and psychologists were recruited in both countries (n= 37, approx. 8-9 participants per group) to speak about their experiences and attitudes toward the psychological encounter. The qualitative design of the study was interpretive-narrative, drawing on queer, trans, feminist and STS methodologies, and involved a semi-structured interview model that was translated and adapted to Spanish and Greek. Interviews took place between December 2019 and June 2021, and counted with the informed consent of the participants. Condifentiality was handled through the anonymisation of potentially identifying data. The interviews were transcribed, coded, horizontally and vertically analysed in their original language, and then translated in English, with constant reflections surrounding the linguistic and cultural power dynamics. A mix of narrative, thematic and interpretive analysis was employed to delve into trans people’s and psychologists’ narratives. The two groups of interviews were then put into conjunction to further examine the issue of gender assessment. Findings point towards the lack of a shared framework of understanding gender identity within the psychological encounter; the mental and bodily representations established by trans people and psychologists, when seen as groups, differ from each other. Moreover, gender identity assessments continue to be carried out; however, the type of tools and the procedure that will be carried out for it depend on each psychologist. There seems to be a cultural component in the formulation of representations about transness, which can be key in decentralising the production of knowledge, without even crossing the barrier of “the West”: the analysis of sociohistorical, legal, linguistic and healthcare-related parameters in Spain and Greece was decisive in this juxtaposition. Lastly, the role of language appeared to be crucial in configurating trans subjectivities. Future research may benefit from further situated cross-cultural comparisons which transparently account for cisgender, cislingual and academic privilege