Psychoanalytic

• The psychoanalytic theory suggests gender dysphoria is caused by a fixation in the phallic stage.

  It states that males do not resolve the Oedipus complex and females do not resolve the electra complex resulting in a weak and confused gender identity.

  Ovesey and Person believe that GD in males may be the result of extreme separation anxiety before the gender identity is made and this results in the child fantasising about symbiotic fusion leading the child ‘becoming the mother’ and ‘adopting’ a female identity.
• AO3

  :)

  Research to support this comes from Stoller who interviewed males with gender dysphoria.

  He found that they had the tendency to display overly close mother and son relationships that could have led to greater female identification and confused gender identity in the long term.

  Therefore this supports this psychoanalytic theory (Ovesey and Person) and increases its validity.
• AO3

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  The issues with this theory is that it is unfalsifiable.

  The main limitation is that it can’t be scientifically observed or tested.

  There is no way of observing, quantifying or measuring a child’s progression through the phallic stage as it’s an abstract and hypothetical concept which critics have questioned the existence of.

  There is no way of verifying if a repressed fantasy that triggers gender dysphoria occurs unless independent, objective evidence is available.

  In other words, most of the theory has to be taken on faith which limits its validity.