Thank you for sharing this. I was trying to complete an exam for a PhD program myself when my brain blocked out any interest in completing. However, writing about crossdreaming and transgender interests do not give me this blocking trouble.

“In my blog post, my point is that people can experience gender dysphoria for two main reasons. One, which I called ‘true’ gender dysphoria, is when the perception or conviction that the body’s and the brain’s gender are misaligned isnot caused by any other condition, mental or otherwise. Such a condition cannot be ‘cured’ (either with therapy and/or medication) and because we’re not advanced enough to change the brain’s gender to fit to the body, we can at least attempt to surgically and hormonally change the body to better resemble the gender that the brain identifies with.”

The brain isn’t of a sex or gender, as the dimorphism of the brain is not a difference of distinct types, but of degree. One’s brain may have a relatively high degree of empathy and relatively low degree of aggression, and this is simply to improve the likelihood that the individual will come to be more affiliated with soft, nurturing, “feminine” associations. In turn these associations are associated with females, and one associates oneself as being like a female, of “being” a female.

“My point here is that when someone comes up to a doctor and says: ‘Doctor, I’m gender dysphoric’ it doesn’t help them at all to reply: ‘You can’t be, because gender is a spectrum, not binary’ and refuse to treat them.”

My point was to reject the notion of an essence to gender, or a given way in which it is constructed. The correct way to go about such a claim, is not in seeking to find whether one is a “real woman”, but to map out the psychology for which the discomfort arises, and to see the best way to remedy it. Also it may be worth adding, that not only is gender not binary, it is also not a spectrum.

I was speaking from the point of view of those who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. It matters little if male/female are binary or a spectrum; what matters for the diagnosis is if the person is suffering from their strong conviction that their body’s gender is not aligned with their brain/mind’s gender identity. We could obviously discuss this in a philosophical way. As a Buddhist, we always say a nice little saying: ‘We do illusionary practices with our illusionary body to deal with our illusionary attachments which create illusionary suffering’. This is meant to make practitioners understand that it’s just our mind that creates those illusions — those things don’t truly exist beyond the interrelationship of mind/body/environment — but nevertheless for those that cannot see things as they are, the suffering is real.

Putting that in Western words: yes, there is no ‘true’ maleness nor ‘true’ femaleness, and as a consequence there cannot be ‘true’ gender dysphoria. Nevertheless, because it requires a special training and understanding to realize that, people still suffer from their misguided belief that maleness/femaleness is ‘true’ and that their body’s gender is not aligned with their brain/mind’s gender. For them (and I certainly include myself in that group!) the suffering is real, and, as such, medical science has to find a way to deal with it.

In my blog post, my point is that people can experience gender dysphoria for two main reasons. One, which I called ‘true’ gender dysphoria, is when the perception or conviction that the body’s and the brain’s gender are misaligned is not caused by any other condition, mental or otherwise. Such a condition cannot be ‘cured’ (either with therapy and/or medication) and because we’re not advanced enough to change the brain’s gender to fit to the body, we can at least attempt to surgically and hormonally change the body to better resemble the gender that the brain identifies with. The other reason is that certain conditions (including, but not limited to, trauma and depression) can lead to the person experiencing symptoms similar to gender dysphoria (a typical example is crossdressing to relieve stress or anxiety caused by many reasons) — but such symptoms are really rooted in other causes, which the person might inaccurately self-diagnose as ‘gender dysphoria’. Once such causes are treated (because trauma, depression, stress etc. can be treated), the feelings of ‘gender dysphoria’ will cease.

My point here is that when someone comes up to a doctor and says: ‘Doctor, I’m gender dysphoric’ it doesn’t help them at all to reply: ‘You can’t be, because gender is a spectrum, not binary’ and refuse to treat them. Instead, the doctor — while still adhering to the conviction that gender is, indeed, a spectrum and not truly existing — should try to help out their patients and see what exactly is the cause of those symptoms of gender dysphoria. It helps little to discuss philosophy with the patient when they are suffering — and that suffering is real, even if the causes for their suffering might not be.