On Diversifying the Psychological Field

In Elizabeth Reis's Divergence or Disorder: the politics of naming intersex, Reis analyzes the history behind hermaphroditism and intersex and their relation to the medical field. In addition, she explains her belief about the controversial way in which these terms are being considered disorders of sex development by the medical field. In Reis's opinion, using the term "disorder" to describe these two terms is controversial because "...it implies medical conditions in need of repair..." (Reis, 535). Instead of "disorder", Reis provides an alternative word, divergence, that would essentially reduce controversy among people who are intersex and the medical field.

Throughout this piece, Reis made some pretty great points, but her passage regarding the reason behind why intersex and hermaphroditism is categorized as a disorder by the medical field was very engaging. Reis writes that by using "DSD", many doctors and physicians have the "...potential to create better medical care for affected children...allowing doctors to focus solely on therapeutic issues..." (Reis, 538).

This passage was very striking to me, as I've been grappling with the connection between two of my favorite disciplines (psychology and WGSS) since I began studying them, and have yet to include the conversation of intersex. The passage quoted above does not sit well with me because I know that psychology has yet to break away from this gender binary that is reinforced within our culture. Therefore, this would essentially make it difficult to really address the needs of an individual who was born intersex, "corrected", and facing the potential of being psychologically unhealthy later on in their life.

As a future psychiatrist, the fact that psychology does reinforce this binary worries me because supporting it can also mean that there is an issue of stigmatizing those who have a non conforming gender expression/identity. Of course, this stigmatization leads to discrimination, violence, etc. of those who do not conform to the male/female binary. These issues, once again, can challenge the psychological well being of the individual.

So, I guess my next question is what/how do we go about diversifying the field in order to be able to respectively address individuals who have mental health issues but are intersex or non conforming? Saying that as a society, we need to change the way we think about gender identity and expression is easier said than done and we have so far to go in order to reach that goal.