Episode 33 - Archetypal Dynamics of Gender Transformation

This Jungian Life Podcast

Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2018

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lisa, Joseph, and Deb circumambulate the difficult issue of gender reassignment. They discuss the significance of teen girls wishing to transition and the current tendency to foreclose the meaning of this and move rapidly into medical procedures, a process of concretization instead of curiosity and exploration. Lisa discusses previous examples of symptoms and their diagnoses in history, leading to an understanding of the influence of cultural factors on mental illnesses and diagnosis. Finally, gender reassignment is considered as a Promethean venture, and although it is now possible to challenge the gods of genetics, it is also truly awe-full. We suggest that gender transitioning, like much else, can be psychologically transformative only if there is a conscious relationship to it.

Lisa's writings on the topic include three articles in Quillette:

Misunderstanding a New Kind of Gender Dysphoria

Transgenderism and the Social Construction of Diagnosis

Trans Activism's Dangerous Myth of Parental Rejection

This article in the Jungian journal Psychological Perspectives:

Outbreak: On Transgender Teens and Psychic Epidemics

And a chapter in this book, which also includes a chapter from UK Jungian analyst Bob Withers:

Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body

The dream:

I am lying in bed with a man I do not know and we are both naked. We are covered by a thin blanket. The man's right hand man comes in the room to discuss something with him. The man in bed with me gets up and does not clothe himself but nonchalantly takes off his penis and hands it to me. It is not bloody or gory and he seems to know that he can put it back on; I am just holding it for him. I'm not sure what to do so I take it under the blanket and lay it on my lower abdomen. The man tells his partner, as he points at me, that he should take a picture for his Dad because they see the outline of the penis under the blanket.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this Jungian life.
0:03.0	Three good friends and Jungian analysts, Lisa Marciano, Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee,
0:09.0	invite you to join them for an intimate and honest conversation that brings a psychological perspective to important issues of the day.
0:17.0	I'm Lisa Marciano and I'm a youngian analyst in Philadelphia.
0:22.0	I'm Joseph Lee and I'm a youngian analyst in Philadelphia. I'm Joseph Lee and I'm a youngian analyst in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
0:27.0	I'm Deborah Stewart, a youngian analyst on Cape Cod.
0:31.0	Hi, this is Lisa from this Union Life podcast.
0:35.0	Joseph Deb and I have been deeply moved by your responses to our work.
0:39.0	Producing, editing, and distributing the podcast involves substantial expenses and we need your help.
0:45.0	Please stop by our website this union life.com and click on the heading be our patron.
0:51.0	You'll be redirected to our Patreon funding page.
0:55.0	Patreon helps creators connect with people who believe in projects like ours.
1:00.0	There you can sign up with your credit card to support us for as little as a dollar a month and at higher levels of support will provide special episodes,
1:08.0	behind the scenes photos and stories, and a chance to join a select pool of listeners for dream interpretations.
1:15.0	Thank you.
1:17.0	Today we are going to explore the archetypal underpinnings and the symbolic significance of the cultural phenomenon of teens changing their gender or becoming transgender.
1:36.0	And Lisa, Joseph, and I are very well aware
1:38.7	that this has been a particular ongoing, well-researched interest of yours and you have published chapters and books you've
1:48.3	published on an online newsletter or podcast called Quilette and in psychological perspectives which is a
1:56.8	youngian journal for our listeners will post those resources for you so you can
2:01.9	read them if you're interested. But for now let us try to delve into this highly politicized topic from an entirely different point of view.
2:14.0	Yeah, I appreciate the introduction, Deb.
	...

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