Transgenderism and Intersexuality in Childhood and Adolescence: Making Choices presents an overview of the research, clinical insights, and ethical dilemmas relevant to clinicians who treat intersex youth and their families. Exploring gender development from a cross-cultural perspective, esteemed scholar Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis and experienced practitioner Friedemann Pfäfflin focus on assessment, diagnosis, and treatment issues. To bridge research and practical application, they include numerous case studies, definitions of relevant terminology, and salient chapter summaries.

Typical Sexual and Psychosexual Differentiation

Typical sexual and psychosexual differentiation

General Terminology

Terminology in the field of typical and atypical psychosexual differentiation is confusing and in some areas controversial. Similar terms are used for different concepts, whereas different terms sometimes refer to one single concept.

Sex and gender are often used interchangeably, but some authors insist on making a distinction between the two. They argue that, in referring to behavior, the term sex (as in “sex differences”) implies that there is a biological basis for the behavior (e.g., Deaux, 1993). For clinicians there is yet another reason to make a distinction between these terms. Whereas in most people every next (psycho-)sexual differentiation phase is in line with the previous one, in many conditions that are discussed in this ...

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