Lev, a family therapist in Albany, NY, takes a feminist family- systems perspective that approaches transgenderism as a normal and potentially healthy variation of human expression. Positing that transgendered people are not "mentally ill," but rather are trying to adapt and cope with an untenable culture, she describes a therapeutic empowerment model for clinical assessment and advocacy on behalf of gender-variant people. Re-examining the historic therapeutic focus, she writes, "forces the clinical community to re-evaluate some of its cherished philosophies of treatment, including the validity of the diagnosis of gender identity disorder, the surgical treatment of intersexed babies, and the mandated treatment of gender-variant children and adolescents." Annotation © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR More Reviews and Recommendations

Tags: transgender emergence