gender

• The psychoanalytic explanation suggests that gender dysphoria in males develops as a result of extreme separation anxiety in the first few years of life before gender identity has formed.  This anxiety causes the boy to unconsciously fantasise about a symbolic fusion with his with mother which results in him identifying with her rather than his father – it is believed that the boy ‘becomes’ the mother.  He therefore develops a female identity instead of a male identity and gender dysphoria is the outcome.