CLAUDE CAHUN
L’occasione della “Giornata internazionale contro l’omofobia, la bifobia e la transfobia” ci permette di condividere due contributi importanti sul tema, con prospettiva simile e approccio differente, pubblicati recentemente su riviste scientifiche peer-reviewed.
Il primo contributo é uno studio clinico statunitense che approfondisce l’associazione tra TGNC (transgender e gender non conforming) e disturbi depressivi e ansiosi, sottolineando il possibile ruolo causale della discriminazione e della “internalized transphobia”.
Il secondo articolo utilizza la prospettiva psicoanalitica per suggerire come l’intersezionalitá tra etnia, gender e sessualitá dovrebbe essere considerata una matrice unica, non scindibile nelle sue componenti. Questo tipo di sguardo consente un approccio più integrato e comprensivo sia nell’avvicinarsi ai vissuti di discriminazione, sia nel considerarne la complessitá intersoggettiva.
Umberto Provenzani
Minority Stress Factors Associated With Depression and Anxiety Among Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Youth
Keywords: Transgender; Gender-nonconforming; Adolescents; Anxiety; Depression; Minority stress; Health disparity
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) adolescents and young adults experience mental health problems, including anxiety and depression, at an elevated rate as compared to their cisgender counterparts. A growing literature suggests that vulnerability to psychiatric problems in TGNC individuals results from social discrimination and minority stress.
Methods: The sample consisted of adolescent TGNC patients (N = 109) who completed behavior health screening questionnaires as standard of care at their first clinical visit to an interdisciplinary gender program within a pediatric academic medical center in a metropolitan Midwestern city. Binary logistic regressions were used to assess whether the likelihood that participants met clinical diagnostic criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) was predicted by gender identity appearance congruence, proximal forms of minority stress (e.g., negative expectations of the future related to gender identity; internalized transphobia) and community connectedness (i.e., resilience) .
Results: Overall, 33% (n = 36) of the sample met diagnostic criteria for MDD and 48% (n = 53) met diagnostic criteria for GAD. Those with high levels of internalized transphobia were significantly more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for both MDD and GAD. Those with low levels of gender identity appearance congruence were significantly more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for MDD but not GAD.
Conclusion: There are several unique factors that may predict mental illness among TGNC youth. Understanding these factors may offer opportunities for targeted clinical and structural interventions.
© 2018 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved… Leggi l’articolo
Toward an intersectional psychoanalysis of race, gender and sexuality
Keywords: intersectionality, race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, psychoanalysis
ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, there has been a growing attention to racial, gender, and sexual diversity. However, the existing psychoanalytic literature tends to treat patients’ race, gender, and sexuality separately. In contrast, an intersectional perspective, rooted in Black feminism and relational psychoanalysis, focuses on the interplay among patients’ race, gender, and sexuality. This intersectional approach aims to expand on the cultural sensitivity of psychoanalysis. In particular, by drawing on critical race theory, feminism, and queer studies, an intersectional psychoanalysis locates individual similarities and differences in the context of racism, sexism, and homophobia and examines the interpersonal relations that maintain gender, racial, and sexual stereotypes and inequities. The clinical vignette of a queer Latino man illustrates the intersections among the patient’s race, gender, and sexual identity… Leggi l’articolo