Transgenderism as individual psychopathology

Young people suffering from gender dysphoria need honest scientific research, not social justice activism

I should preface that the primary intended audience of this piece is individuals who are already critical of transgender identity ideology, as I do not expect those who actually buy into that belief system to be at all swayed by this post or any of my other arguments. Of course, anyone is welcome to read. If this somehow does change an ideologically brainwashed gender dysphoric person’s mind, then great. This is intended to be a comprehensive post on often-misunderstood issues regarding gender dysphoria, so do bear with me here it’s gonna be a long one.

As remarked by the brilliant Dr. Ray Blanchard, sociopolitical theory has given both trans rights extremists and radical feminist extremists a common language to discuss sex/gender issues. This common language is one that emphasizes concepts like “oppression” and does not pay any mind to the study of individual psychology.

I want to change that, so in this post I will be delving into a detailed scientific understanding of all forms of gender dysphoria and sex-identity transposition, as well as the conditions that underlie them.

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Male gender dysphoria

I suppose we should start at what has historically comprised the majority of gender identity disorder patients, and talk of whom is still frankly the majority of the sex/gender discussion: gender dysphoric men and MtF trans individuals. Let me get this out of the way, transgenderism in biological males is primarily explained by two paraphilic phenomena: autogynephilia (males who are sexually desirous of being or becoming females) and autogynandromorphophilia (males who are sexually desirous of being or becoming feminized or emasculated males).

Autogynephilia (AGP)

Autogynephilia is a concept that suffers a lot of talk, but not a lot of understanding. Autogynephilia is a dimension of sexual paraphilia known as an erotic target location error, or ETLE for short (Lawrence, 2009). In an ETLE, an individual is sexually and romantically/emotionally oriented towards the thought of embodying that to which they are attracted. ETLEs are a spectrum of disordered symptomatology, and can encompass simple fetishism all the way to agonizing psychological anguish over one’s embodiment:

“Any viable theory relating the etiologies of autogynephilia and transsexualism must explain the following well-established observation: Gender dysphoria, in young nonhomosexual males, usually appears along with, or subsequent to, autogynephilia; in later years, however, autogynephilic sexual arousal may diminish or disappear, while the transsexual wish remains or grows even stronger. Such histories are often produced by gender-dysphoric patients, but one does not have to rely on self-report to accept that the transsexual motive may attain, or inherently possess, some independence from autogynephilia. The same conclusion is suggested by the fact that surgical castration and estrogen treatment-which decrease libido in gender dysphorics as in other men-usually have no effect on the desire to live as a female or the resolve to remain in that role.

One may speculate that the above developmental sequence reflects the operation, in autogynephilic men, of certain normal heterosexual behaviors. Many men, after years of marriage, are less excited by their wives than they were initially but continue to be deeply attached to them; in other words, pair-bonding, once established, is not necessarily dependent on the continuation of high levels of sexual attraction. It is therefore feasible that the continuing desire to have a female body, after the disappearance of sexual response to that thought, has some analog in the permanent love-bond that may remain between two people after their initial strong sexual attraction has largely disappeared.” (Blanchard, 1991).

Autoandrophobia

Autogynephilia has another side to it, which in certain circles has been dubbed “autoandrophobia”. AGP is a misdirection of male heterosexuality, the heterosexual desires are infused to the AGP male’s self-concept. So, at the most extreme end of AGP, complete autosexuality, the brain desires to see a female body almost every time that the AGP male views his own body. Remember: heterosexual men desire to be with women, but heterosexual men are also revolted by the thought of being with another man. The AGP’s brain interprets their own body as a sexual partnering target, and so becomes repulsed when that body is male. This is where much of the neurotic body loathing in MtF transsexuals originates from.

Autogynandromorphophilia (AGAMP) aka partial AGP

AGAMP or partial AGP (Blanchard, 1993) describes males who are sexually oriented towards the thought of being pre-operative transsexuals (female secondary sex characteristics with male genitalia) or feminized men (“femboys”). Basically, these are the transgender males who delightfully enjoy retaining their male genitalia. These men tend to be fetishistically desirous of being “trans”, rather than truly desiring to be a woman. In online transgender culture, this seems to be far more common than complete AGP. I do not know why, but this phenomena clearly accounts for the fact that the majority of transgender males do not seem to experience much genuine distress over being biological males.

AGAMP trans vs. AGP trans

If there is to be a dichotomy between “truly dysphoric transsexuals” and “fetishists” (I do believe that, to some extent, such a dichotomy exists), this is the mechanism behind that dichotomy.

Now, it may seem like I have left out MtF homosexual transsexuals (HSTS), but I will get to them. However, the two phenomena outlined above explain the overwhelming majority of transgenderism in males, HSTS transwomen are extraordinarily rare.

Denial/omission of AGP among formerly transgender-identified men and transsexuals critical of transgender activism.

There are three most important reasons that AGP men and transwomen will deny being AGP. I will be going over them each here. All of them have autoandrophobia as an underlying factor, and they often intersect with one another (albeit not always).

Desire to separate oneself from AGAMP transgender culture (& believing that AGP = AGAMP)

The term AGP tends to be associated colloquially with being a “non-dysphoric fetishist”, a transvestite, or a transgender-identifying male who wishes to keep his male genitalia. Thus, individuals who have extreme physical dysphoria as a result of AGP will be unaware that they’re AGP, or perhaps peripherally aware but have a strong incentive to deny it in themselves.

Males with a powerful desire to be female that developed as a result of AGP will often feel little kinship with AGAMP males, who desire to be “trans” or feminized but largely do not mind their intrinsic maleness. This will lead to the agonizingly dysphoric AGP transwomen wishing to attach themselves to a “true transsexual” label, which is understandable, but this claim often comes with a claim of being naturally feminine, having female-typical hobbies in childhood, or having a “female brain”, all of these claims being inaccurate for AGP males (no matter how agonizing their dysphoria genuinely is).

Fear of feminist caricatures of AGP

Due to both the phenomenon of autoandrophobia, and the radical feminist caricaturing of AGP (as well as caricaturing of paraphilias in general, and heck of male sexuality in general) men and transwomen with AGP will be strongly motivated to deny that they experience AGP. I have personally witnessed extensive radical feminist harassment of Debbie Hayton (a post-operative heterosexual transsexual who is critical of transgender identity ideology) and Ray Williams (a man who formerly identified as a transgender woman and took cross-sex hormones, but no longer does). The harassment of these two individuals is primarily because they are honest about the thing that drove their transgenderism: AGP. I have defined AGP as a disordered variety of heterosexuality in men. Extremist gender critical feminists (GC ultras) define AGP as a “boundary violating fetish”, inherently defined by “objectification of women”. I make no denial of the fact that many men with AGP do objectionable things, but AGP is not defined by doing objectionable things. Furthermore, as I went over in my previous post, feminist explanations of male sexual behavior are largely simply inaccurate and rooted in wishful thinking and social constructivism.

But radical feminists are a very small minority of women, and certainly not representative of any sizable part of the human population, so why would AGP men be so strongly motivated to misrepresent themselves to radical feminists’ ideals? Well, a part of it has to do with autoandrophobia, and obsession. To quote Anne Lawrence’s Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies:

“If Freud was correct that men’s respect for women is antierotic, perhaps the almost worshipful idealization that some autogynephilic men feel toward women can act as an impediment to their engaging in sexual intercourse with female partners.”

Excessive idealization of women, as well as hatred of being male, will cause men with AGP to gravitate to radical feminism at way higher rates than any other men or women will. So, if AGP is defined as misogyny, AGP men will have all the more reason to never admit to it and be pained by the possibility of it being true.

Obsession with being truly feminine or unlike other men

Another major reason, perhaps the main one, that transsexuals who transitioned due to AGP will excessively cognitively deny their own AGP is due to an autoandrophobia-driven obsession with being truly feminine or innately unlike other men. They deeply wish to believe that they are innately more similar to women, or that they’re innately “gender nonconforming” and became transgender for that reason. Their autoandrophobia causes a painful disgust at the reality that their natural embodiment is, usually, simply that of an unremarkably masculine man. Many also believe that they are gay and latch onto this belief as evidence that they are intrinsically feminine, but they are actually experiencing pseudo-bisexuality:

“In my opinion, bisexual gender dysphorics' erotic interest in males is qualitatively different from that experienced by homosexual gender dysphorics. In their fantasies of sexual interaction with men, bisexual gender dysphorics are primarily aroused by what is, for them, the symbolic meaning of such acts, namely, the thought that they themselves are women. This type of "bisexual" orientation need not reflect an equal erotic attraction to the male and female physiques and would be better characterized as pseudobisexuality.” [emphasis mine] (Blanchard, 1990).

When men who have lived as transwomen and later de-transitioned claim that they were motivated by internalizing the values of a homophobic society, they are interpreting their experiences conveniently through a social justice theory lens which will get them applauded by feminists. What they were actually experiencing is AGP pseudo-bisexuality. They imagine themselves having sex with men “as a woman” (or as a feminized man, many are AGAMP), but are disgusted by the idea of simply being a man with a man, as are other heterosexual men. In AGAMP paraphilias, the idea of being a “failed male” is commonly eroticized, and they interpret this as a manifestation of internal homophobia. Furthermore, being gay rather than AGP is applauded by GC feminists and gets these men many female sympathy points (something these men desperately want). Practically all “gay detrans men” are actually of a paraphilic etiology, and I will explain why in the following section.

MtF homosexual transsexuals (HSTS)

MtF HSTS are also a plenty talked about, but definitely not plenty understood, demographic. Significantly, they are extremely rare. I will explain their profile as simply as possible: these are the biological males who display female-typical toy preference, motor mannerisms, and peer group preference from earliest childhood. They also vocalize a belief that they will grow up to be women generally before the age of 5. This is called gender identity disorder (GID) of childhood. It is not uncommon for homosexual people who will not become adult transsexuals to display a milder form of GID of childhood that they desist from in adolescence, but the severity seen in MtF HSTS is unique to them. HSTS are not simply “gay men that transition”, masculine gay men have no motivation to transition because the only reason normatively masculine men transition is due to ETLEs, so self-proclaimed “gay transitioners” who are non-feminine are AGP or AGAMP (usually the latter, since AGAMP is a paraphilia about male feminization, not female bodies, so they often develop a fixation on male homosexuality and gay culture).

Regret for having transitioned in MtF HSTS is extraordinarily rare and, according to studies, essentially nonexistent (Blanchard et al., 1989). Regret in ETLE-driven male gender dysphorics is far more common, and this is because their core identity and sex-typed behaviors are masculine, so keeping up the feminine self essentially requires active effort.

“Gay/autistic ROGD boys”

I will delve further into the concept of ROGD (rapid-onset gender dysphoria) in my section of female gender dysphoria, but I can shorten the claim of the phenomena in males to my simple thesis here: all male trans is driven by either one of the overwhelming majority paraphilia etiologies, or the ultra-rare in-utero feminization etiology (which will have been obvious to the parents from very early childhood). Parents who claim that they have “ROGD boys” in truth have teenage sons suffering from AGP or AGAMP, and are either blissfully unaware of this or engaging in cognitive denial due to caricatures of AGP, and understandable discomfort with the idea that their son has a paraphilia. “My son isn’t AGP, he’s autistic!” is a common argument, but actually the latter confirms the former. Paraphilias are much more common in individuals with high-functioning ASD than in typically developed individuals. They also often claim their son is gay, which on a surface level likely seems true but is fully explainable by AGAMP and/or pseudo-bisexuality. A description of a “gifted”, autistic, socially isolated son, who is fixated on anime and video games, is a common description. This description is practically a bog standard image of a teenage boy suffering from autogynephilia. The resemblance of AGP to high-functioning autism (or Asperger’s syndrome as it was called at the time) has been noted long before the trans boom ever occurred:

“I further hypothesize that, when nonhomosexual MtF transsexuals describe themselves as having been unmasculine or “not like other boys,” they often may be referring to an unwillingness or inability to seek out female sexual partners with an avidity comparable to their peers, rather than to the presence of femaletypical interests or behaviors.The nonhomosexual MtF transsexuals I have interviewed rarely describe themselves as having had female-typical interests and behaviors in childhood, but many describe themselves as having been “unmasculine,” in ways that go beyond their commonly reported disinterest in team sports. Many recall having had little erotic interest generally or little interest in interpersonal sexuality specifically, in comparison to their male peers. Many never dated during adolescence unless invited by girls. Clearly these boys had not been unattracted to girls, but their attraction was often more idealizing and affectionate than overtly erotic and was not expressed with typical masculine confidence. Admittedly, this is a complicated issue: a significant number of nonhomosexual MtF transsexuals appear to have comparatively little interest in other people generally, but substantial interest in “things,” especially computers and other machines (Laub and Fisk 1974). In my experience, the tendency of some MtF transsexuals to prefer things over people sometimes involves deficits in empathy and interpersonal skills similar to those seen in Asperger’s disorder; this may partly explain the limited interpersonal sexual expression or interest of some nonhomosexual MtF transsexuals (Galluci, Hackerman, and Schmidt 2005). Nevertheless, it seems plausible that some nonhomosexual MtF transsexuals who report that they were unmasculine in childhood and adolescence can accurately be thought of as persons who want to become what they love, but whose love for women is more affectionate than erotic.” [emphasis mine] (Lawrence, 2007).

Dr. Lawrence’s observations fully explain the link with autism, as well as the commonly claimed “soft boy” personality type by ROGD boy parents. All of these things are in fact typical of men with AGP. I constructed a thread on Xitter, detailing the historical evidence that AGP has always been a condition overwhelmingly afflicting “nerdy” men (not that all AGP men have this personality type, but more do than do not).

This was also remarked on by Dr. Blanchard, in the early 2000s:

”Technological and scientific careers seem to me to be over-represented among autogynephiles. (Ray Blanchard remarked to me that he saw a seemingly close relation between autogynephilia and computer nerdiness.)” (Bailey, 2003)

This is not me saying that something resembling a social contagion plays no role. I believe it does, and has for a long time. An increase in gender dysphoria patients as soon as home computers became widely commercially available has been remarked on in the past by therapists specializing in gender dysphoria:

“Although seeing gender dysphoric clients who are in mid life is not new to me, the recent increase in genetic males who are in their late forties and early fifties coming in to work on their gender issues is too large to simply ignore. Why the sudden increase? Is there a special profile associated with this group? What have they been doing about their problem all these years? Is it too late to do anything about it? In this Note, I'll pass on what I have learned about this phenomenon and some of the results of my work with these individuals.

One of the first questions I ask when doing an intake interview is: "How were you referred to me"? The most common answer I get these days is they heard my name mentioned on the internet. Ahh yes... the internet.” (Vitale, 1997)

There is a phenomenon of autistic males having a transgender awakening because of online activity, but it does not happen without an underlying paraphilia, that is the gist of things with “ROGD boys”. You can read Aaron Terrell’s post on this for more perspective (his writings will be essential to the next section, so stay tuned).

With that explained, I can move on to the second section.

Female gender dysphoria

Female gender dysphoria is a topic that suffers a severe lack of research. There is a genuine male-bias in the field of sex research, and this is due to most sex researchers being male and having less of a grasp on female sexuality and female psychology. However, I believe female gender dysphoria is also misrepresented by feminists, who are politically motivated rather than scientifically motivated. Due to the lack of research, most of the beliefs I present here will be semi-speculatory, but are things that I strongly believe hard science will confirm to be true. I suggest that before you read this, you read two of Aaron Terrell’s articles: “How Early Psychologists Got Female Gender Dysphoria Wrong” and “The Man in Me”.

Rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD)

I believe girls who abruptly identify as transgender in adolescence are likely not a uniform phenomenon with a singular underlying psychology. Some individuals labeled ROGD likely have underlying autoandrophilia (AAP) motivating their transgenderism. However, there is a core group which I will label “true ROGD”, those who identify as trans for reasons that are truly completely divorced from atypical sexual arousal patterns (I do believe this group exists, sex disorders are rarer in females than in males yet starting in the late 2010s trans identification in females began to outnumber males). I believe Aaron Terrell’s assertions regarding the true ROGD group are accurate:

“This newer cohort, termed Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), with no history of childhood dysphoria or nonconformity are a separate issue. While there are of course girls today who are developing gender dysphoria prior to exposure to social media, they are likely still as uncommon as they were in generations past. That astronomical increase in numbers of females seeking transition are doing so to manifest their “trans” identity, not a “male” identity. I suspect if there is a two-type dichotomy, it is this.” [emphasis mine]

I also share Aaron’s observations that these girls are partly driven to transition due to an ideological attachment to social justice culture. An ideology that tells them that this is all because they’re “gender nonconforming”, or actually a lesbian, is near equally harmful to them. It reaffirms the disorder symptoms by giving them another “oppressed” identity to latch onto, when they will almost universally desire a normal life as a heterosexual woman someday.

Autoandrophilia (AAP)

Autoandrophilia, or AAP for short, is in its simplest understanding a counterpart to AGP in heterosexual females. However, due to average differences between how sexuality in heterosexual males and females manifests, this often isn’t immediately obvious.

To begin to understand this, a concept that first must be understood is that (comparatively to heterosexual males) heterosexual females are less category-specific (physiologically aroused only by the preferred sex) than males in general (Chivers et al., 2004). The lowered category-specificity is true of heterosexual and bisexual females, the notable exception is lesbian females who display a visibly higher category specificity even when the fact that there were surely a lot of lesbian-identified non-lesbians in this study sample (Rieger et al. 2016).

This sex difference is relevant because, as detailed in Aaron Terrell’s Substack, it means that AAP females are way more likely to manifest homosexual behavior as a way to embody masculinity to themselves than AGP males are to engage in homosexual relations as a way to embody femininity to themselves. This explains the phenomenon of formerly lesbian-identified women transitioning and becoming bisexual or “gay” transmen (e.g. Buck Angel, Patrick Califia). This happens in AGPs as well, with formerly gay-identified men becoming bisexual or “lesbian” transwomen (e.g. Chelsea Manning, Roz Kaveney) but it is rarer by comparison, it is much more common for AGP males to be exclusively heterosexual before and begin acting on pseudo-bisexuality after transitioning. The phenomenon of “lesbians” transitioning and uncovering a true attraction to males has been reported on even by mainstream LGBT news outlets.

“Transmen are self-hating lesbians!” Not often so, on the rarity of true lesbian orientation in women

To quote something Aaron said to me in a Xitter DM (the context was me speaking on “gay men” who are actually AGP and their influence on gender critical culture):

“GC thought is also influenced by lesbians who are likely lesbian due to AAP too. It’s not just the dudes IMO.”

In one of Aaron Terrell’s videos on the “butch lesbian to gay man pipeline”, a commenter remarks:

“Naturally gynephillic females who were butch were far more quietly “masculine” than the future-gay-ftm types, as well. It was less “performative.” I totally understand what you mean Aaron T. I am actually so glad to see someone else saying this and connecting it. It’s been in the edges of my mind since the late 90s and early 2000s when everyone started transing in the lesbian community.”

The difference between genuinely masculinized (as in, in-utero masculinized) lesbian women and performatively masculine “lesbians” has been long noticed, and I believe AAP (or autoandrogynomorphophilia, AAGMP, the female version of AGAMP) is the reason behind the latter.

Lesbians who are genuinely simply exclusively homosexually oriented women, who’s sexual psychology has nothing to do with men (either desiring to be them, or fearing them) are a far rarer group, and constantly spoken over by these other groups.

In The Transsexual Empire, Janice Raymond remarks on lesbian feminists opting to date biological males who have underwent vaginoplasties, and she even (correctly) pins this on an underlying sexual desire for men and masculinity:

However, in a stunning lack of self-awareness, Raymond fails to realize this is because “lesbian feminism” is an ideology for straight women suffering issues specific to straight women, that really has little to do with genuinely homosexual women. That being, actual homosexual women do not have an underlying desire for males or people who resemble males. I believe it is common for these category-nonspecific bisexual women to use masculinized women and transmen, as well as transwomen, as “safe” substitutions for simply having a normal male partner. When influenced by AAP and AAGMP, this is also where “lesbians” who masculinize their own presentation and exclusively date other masculine-presenting women originate from, and why they have a specific aversion to feminine women and lesbians who prefer feminine women. Its because their reason for being “lesbians” is a desire to embody masculinity and escape heterosexual female femininity, as Aaron aptly explains. Partnering with another extremely masculine presenting female can be a way to manifest their desire to resemble homosexual men, as well. A mirror exists in AGP males who pair up with each other to mutually enact their desire to be lesbian women.

The smaller group of genuine lesbians, who are simply sexually attracted to women and not motivated by any of the aforementioned things, tend to have male-typical toy & play group preference in childhood, male-typical career choices in adulthood, may have had desisted GID of childhood, and are sexually attracted to normatively feminine women. They may present masculine, androgynous, or normatively feminine in adulthood. This brings me to the next group.

FtM homosexual transsexuals (HSTS)

FtM HSTS are much like MtF HSTS in many ways: sex-reversed behaviors obvious in childhood, exclusive attraction to normative members of their own biological sex, GID of childhood. However, and I have been swayed to believe this by Aaron’s writing as well as conversing with lesbian women that I know, I believe FtM HSTS are actually rarer than MtF HSTS.

One reason for this is that autoandrophobia/autogynephobia (aka neurotic obsessive dysphoria, extreme disgust for the natural body) is unique to ETLE-driven gender dysphorics. As such, homosexual females may opt to put aside the thought of transition due to the relative low quality of FtM phalloplasty, compared to MtF vaginoplasty which is largely capable of everything that MtF HSTS desire it for.

Secondly, multiple studies (1, 2) have reported that homosexual attractions are more common in women on the autism spectrum than in women in general. While a part of this may be explained by bisexuality & AAP-driven women, my personal experience interacting with lesbians is that lesbians are substantially more likely to have autistic traits than heterosexual women. Autistic traits correlate with self-eroticism, so this may mean that some lesbians, no matter how masculine their personality is, would actually be horrified by the thought of having a male body. Some individuals who I know have reported such a feeling to me. As such, I believe that essentially all transgenderism in autistic males is AGP, and that most (although I don’t believe all) transgenderism in autistic females is AAP. I believe non-autistic masculinized homosexual females are more likely to become HSTS transmen than autistic ones, although both demographics can end up transmen.

What does this mean for gender dysphorics?

It means that gender dysphoria is a complex mental disorder, that in most cases can be managed without medical transition but is largely, in most cases, chronic and cannot be cured or done away with permanently. One cannot wish away the propensity to desire to be the opposite sex with feminism, “gender nonconformity”, or being gay (you either are homosexual or you aren’t, and most gender dysphorics aren’t). Gender dysphorics do not possess an innate characteristic called “being trans” that means we just have to medically transition, but we do possess a mental pathology that cannot be willed away with social justice theory or gender role liberalism, in many cases it can be managed in other ways but effective management largely requires understanding what it is.

What does this mean about those who have transitioned? It means the “types of trans” are essentially as follows:

• the dichotomy between “true transsexuals” vs. “fetishists” in MtFs is primarily AGP vs. AGAMP

• the dichotomy between “true transsexuals” vs. “trenders” in FtMs is primarily AAP vs. ROGD

• the overwhelming majority of transgenderism (excluding ROGD in females) is caused by autoerotic paraphilia

• HSTS of both sexes are extraordinarily rare

Do I expect to be listened to? Honestly, no. However, I do believe that the trans issue will consider to be an endless shitfire until many of these concepts are understood. True understanding is most important for young gender dysphorics, who need compassion and not ideology of either trans or feminist varieties.