Jem Tosh

Psygentra

This groundbreaking text interrogates the constructed boundary between therapy and violence, by examining therapeutic practice and discourse through the lens of a psychologist and a survivor of sexual abuse. It asks, what happens when those we approach for help cause further harm? Can we identify coercive practices and stop sexual abuse in psychol...

http://bit.ly/psychGD Psychiatry and psychology have a long and highly debated history in relation to gender. In particular, they have attracted criticism for policing the boundaries of ‘normal’ gender expression through gender identity diagnoses, such as transvestism, transsexualism, gender identity disorder and gender dysphoria. Drawing on disc...

Psychology defines people who take pleasure in the suffering of others as having a form of mental illness, while media representations frame such behaviour as ‘evil’. This is hotly contested territory, not least where sexual violence is concerned – violence which feminist voices argue is related to power rather than sex. Perverse Psychology examin...

Jem Tosh is a nonbinary psychologist who specializes in gender and trauma. They are a member of several international psychological societies; the author of books entitled, Perverse Psychology (Tosh, 2014), Psychology and Gender Dysphoria: Feminist and Transgender Perspectives (Tosh, 2016a), and The Body and Consent in Psychology, Psychiatry and Me...

In this chapter Tosh describes their experiences as a queer and genderfluid survivor growing up in Northern Ireland, and how those experiences influenced their career as a psychologist who specialises in sexual abuse and violence. Tosh outlines the complex intersections of gender, sexuality, race, place, and historical context and shows why these i...

The authors answer recent responses by Steensma & Cohen-Kettenis (2018 Steensma, T. D., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2018). A critical commentary on “A critical commentary on follow-up studies and “desistence” theories about transgender and gender non-conforming children”. International Journal of Transgenderism. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080...

ABSTRACT Background: It has been widely suggested that over 80% of transgender children will come to identify as cisgender (i.e., desist) as they mature, with the assumption that for this 80%, the trans identity was a temporary "phase." This statistic is used as the scientific rationale for discouraging social transition for pre-pubertal children....

Gender nonconformity has been pathologized by psychiatry for well over a century, and critiques of this pathologization are numerous. I add to this body of analysis by drawing on feminist, transgender and critical psychology perspectives to critique current psychiatric diagnostic approaches to gender. I also foreground the role of power in psychiat...

Sexual violence is an ever-increasing feature of online culture, with rape the central aim of ‘stalking simulators’ and violence directed towards avatar sex workers in the Grand Theft Auto franchise (Martinez and Manolovitz 2010, p. 68). Using discourse analysis, this chapter examines discussions from online forums about the use of the word ‘rape’...

There is a long and complex history regarding clinical/counselling and forensic psychology's roles in defining sexual 'abnormality'. From 19th century studies of 'perversion' to current understandings of 'paraphilic disorders', there has been a wealth of debate, disagreement, and controversy. This chapter outlines several key diagnoses in the field...

Climate change is at the forefront of ideas about public policy, the economy and labour issues. However, the gendered dimensions of climate change and the public policy issues associated with it in wealthy nations are much less understood. Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries covers a wide range of issues dealing with work and working life....

Jemma Tosh gibt einen Überblick über die Entwicklungen und Probleme im Feld der kritischen Feministischen, Queer- und Trans-Psychologie, die insbesondere im angloamerikanischen Raum vertreten und weiterentwickelt wird. Sie arbeitet dabei die Ursprünge dieser Tradition in der psychology of women sowie der „Psychologie der Sexualitäten“ heraus und di...

Psychiatry’s problematic framing of femininity, women’s bodies, and sexuality has attracted much condemnation (Caplan & Cosgrove, 2004; Frith, 2013; Ussher, 2011). The intersection of sanism and sexism is particularly overt in the psy- complex’s (Rose, 1979) response to violence. While psychiatry acknowledges that many of those diagnosed with ‘fema...

This chapter explores two cases of bullying at UK universities, one involving a student, the other, a faculty member; in one case, the victim’s response to bullying having been labeled “mentally ill” and in the other, the bullying itself arising as a consequence of such a label. Using institutional ethnography and discourse analysis, the authors an...

General training in psychology, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, can contain little content on the issues and complexities regarding the psychology of gender. The problems I go on to discuss here, regarding psychology, can be applied across the psy-professions of psychiatry and psychotherapy. It is not the case that discussions of 'essential...

Theories regarding gender violence have moved beyond a simple dichotomy, where women are positioned as victims and men are perpetrators. This complexity is through a nuanced analysis of privilege, power, and oppression, drawing on intersectionality theory, as well as problematizing the gender binary itself.

In 2009 a US based television programme, The View, discussed the arrest of film director Roman Polanski. Polanski was wanted for six outstanding charges related to the rape of Samantha Gailey in 1977. During this episode of the The View, Whoopi Goldberg made a controversial statement that Polanksi was not guilty of ‘rape-rape’. This statement along...

While it has been acknowledged that the language used to describe natural resource extraction is highly gendered (Russell, 2013), the relationship between gender and natural resource extraction is under-researched, ‘undiscussed and silenced’ (Laplonge, 2013, p. 2). Similarly, there are increasing reports that the introduction of extraction industri...

Book Review - Extract: "In the context of Irish studies the experiences of women can often be tangential. This collection edited by MacPherson and Hickman (2014) aims to address this neglected area by putting the voices of women at the forefront of their analyses. The book offers an interdisciplinary collection of work on gender and Irish identity...

http://www.asylumonline.net/portfolio/22-1-spring-2014/

Psychiatric diagnoses related to gender expression have been the focus of much change and speculation, while continuing to accumulate. This changeability has, in part, been influenced by the demedicalization of homosexuality (Conrad and Angell, 2004) due to the perceived interdependence between sexuality and gender identity, but it also illustrates...

T-tests, correlations, objectivity, validity, reliability, control groups – typical contents of an accredited undergraduate psychology research methods module at university. Despite the popularity of qualitative methodologies within the profession (such as the success of the Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section), the predominant focus on stati...

Psychiatric diagnoses related to transgenderism span a wide range of terms, theories, and treatments. Similarly, intersexuality is coming increasingly under the psychiatric gaze, being incorporated into the “gender dysphoria” criteria as with or without a “disorder of sex development” (APA, 2013). Despite the diagnostic link between these two group...

Sexual violence has featured in psychiatric theorizing of ‘perversion’ since the late 19th century and continues with ongoing research into the medical ‘treatment’ of rapists (e.g. Shaw, 2012). Whether it’s Krafft-Ebing’s (1892) ‘lust murderers’, Money’s (1986) ‘biastophilic rapists’ or the American Psychiatric Association’s recent proposal for ‘pa...

Full paper available at: http://journals.library.mun.ca/ojs/index.php/IJ/article/view/739 Psychiatric diagnoses related to transgenderism span a wide range of terms, theories, and treatments. Similarly, intersexuality is coming increasingly under the psychiatric gaze, being incorporated into the “gender dysphoria” criteria as with or without a “d...

Psychiatry places boundaries around ‘normal’ sexuality through its numerous diagnoses contained within the paraphilias section of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). This is a contested area as challenges to the pathologisation of consensual sexual activities (such as S&M) and broader critiques of the concept more generally have accumulate...

Feminism has long debated over the individualistic, neoliberal perspective of personal freedom and ‘choice’ within sexual relationships (Beres, 2007; Drakopoulou, 2007; Pateman, 1980). However, what does this mean within a context where the boundary between sexual expression is intertwined with histories of sexual abuse? This paper will examine a c...

Psychiatric constructions regarding gender expression have been the focus of much change and speculation. Using discourse analysis (Parker, 2002), this paper will trace the historical development of psychiatric constructions of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ gender expression, and contextualise the recent reconstruction of gender through the DSM-5 proposa...

Sexual violence is an ever-increasing feature of online culture, with rape the central aim of ‘stalking simulators’ as well as the infamous violence directed towards avatar sex workers in Grand Theft Auto III (Martinez and Manolovitz, 2010: 68). This is in addition to the word ‘rape’ being commandeered and redefined by online gaming communities to...

Sexual violence has featured in psychiatric theorizing of ‘perversion’ since the late 19th century and continues with ongoing research into the medical ‘treatment’ of rapists (e.g. Shaw, 2012). Whether it’s Krafft-Ebing’s (1892) ‘lust murderers’, Money’s (1986) ‘biastophilic rapists’ or the DSM-5 proposal for ‘paraphilic coercive disorder’ (APA, 20...

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) has a richly contested history since its inclusion in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III, 1980). GID continues to feature in the American Psychiatric Association (APA) nomenclature, despite accumulating criticisms (e.g. Bryant, 2008; Hegarty, 2009; Hird, 2003; Lev, 2005), petitions (iP...

The stranger rape narrative is a powerful and well-rehearsed construction of sexual violence, that is constantly being repeated in new and innovative ways through popular culture (Houlihan, 2009), legal discourse (Estrich, 1987) and psychiatric diagnoses (Tosh, 2011). However, feminists have long argued that the disproportionate focus on stranger r...

Intersecting discourses related to gender, race and rape have been a contested issue for feminists for some time. Internal conflicts within feminism have occurred simultaneously with campaigns to transform ‘rape culture’ (Buchwald et al. 1993). This internal critique has continued with third wave feminists foregrounding issues of race and class in...

Division of Clinical Psychology Annual Conference, 1–3 December 2010, The Lowry Hotel, 50 Dearmans Place, Chapel Wharf, Salford, Manchester M3 5LH

The Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) of the British Psychological Society (BPS) invited Professor Ken Zucker as a keynote speaker to their annual conference in December 2010 (BPS, 2010). Zucker works at the Toronto Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and is considered an authoritative figure in the controversial diagnosis and ‘treatm...

In 2010 the American Psychiatric Association (APA) proposed revisions for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). These revisions included criteria for ‘Paraphilic Coercive Disorder’ (PCD), which state that the individual ‘…has sought sexual stimulation from forcing sex on three or more non-consenting persons on separate...

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) labels gender nonconformity in childhood as Childhood Gender Identity Disorder (GID) (DSM-IV-TR, 2000) or Gender Dysphoria (GD) (APA, 2011). This approach is challenged by those who advocate for gender to be viewed as a diverse spectrum of possibilities rather than a rigid binary, although the diagnoses ar...

The authors of this paper worked as a team to deliver a series of five workshop sessions to parents of children on the autism spectrum. Katy Flynn and Jemma Tosh are Assistant Psychologists, Dr Latha Hackett is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr Sam Todd is a Clinical Psychologist, Dr Caroline Bond is an Educational Psychologist and...