Development II: 6 to 12 Years

Fourth Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2021-22, 2nd Trimester — Fridays, 1:45-3:15pm
Ashley Harmon, MD

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February 18, 2022 — Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Gender Development and Gender Diversity

[24 pages]

In this class, we will continue to explore the clinical implications of a nonlinear systems model of human development that describes a fragmenting process before psychological growth occurs. Binary genders are frequently called upon to distinguish differences observed in the middle childhood, and gender diversity in middle childhood is readily observed in this age, too.  We will begin a discussion about where psychoanalysis is in the recognition and treatment of transgender children.

Trans Student Educational Resources (2017) “The Gender Unicorn”

Kilpatrick, K. (2020) Pop. Genius Cat Books.

Ehrensaft, D. (2021) Psychoanalysis Meets Transgender Children: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 18:68-91

Optional Reading

Barkai, A.R. (2017) Troubling Gender or Engendering Trouble? The Problem with Gender Dysphoria in Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Review 104:1-32.

Ehrensaft, D. (2014). Listening and learning from gender-nonconforming children. PSC, 68:28-56.

Knight, R. (2014). Free to be you and me: normal gender-role fluidity—commentary on Diane Ehrensaft’s “Listening and learning from gender-nonconforming children.” PSC, 68:57-70.

Knight, R. (2011). Fragmentation, Fluidity, and Transformation: Nonlinear Development in Middle Childhood. PSC, 65:19-47.

Knight, R. (2021) Reconsidering Development in Psychoanalysis, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, DOI: 10.1080/00797308.2021.1996123