Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 23:07, 25 June 2008

Kenneth J. Zucker is an American-Canadian psychologist and sexologist best known for his controversial work on gender identity disorder in children.

Zucker holds positions at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and University of Toronto. He was named editor-in-chief of Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2001. In 2007 Zucker was chosen to be a member of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Gender Identity, Gender Variance, and Intersex Conditions, and in 2008 was named chair of the American Psychiatric Association workgroup on "Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders" for the 2012 edition of the DSM-V.

Career

Zucker was born in New York. After earning his B.A. and M.A. from University of Toronto, Zucker earned his Ph.D. there in 1982. He holds a C. Psych. certification.

Zucker's graduate work in developmental psychology resulted in his master's thesis on normative gender identity development in children. While in graduate school, Zucker met his future collaborator Susan J. Bradley, a child psychiatrist on staff at the Child and Adolescent Service (now the Child and Family Studies Centre) at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, a government-funded psychiatric research institute and one of the primary teaching hospitals of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine.

According to his biography, "Zucker's awe of the imposing Clarke Institute edifice inspired him to meet with the then chief of psychology, Dr. Kingsley Ferguson," who told Zucker of Bradley's new working group to assess children and adolescents with gender identity problems. Zucker had read Richard Green's 1974 book Sexual Identity Conflict in Children and Adults and was convinced to join Bradley’s group.

"Therapeutic intervention" for gender variance

Since the mid-1970's Zucker has treated about 500 preadolescent gender-variant children to "help these kids be more content in their biological gender" until they are older and can determine their sexual identity. For children assigned as males at birth, Zucker orders parents to take away their child’s "feminine" toys and instruct the child not to play with or draw pictures of girls. Psychologist Darryl Hill describes Zucker's approach to gender-variant children:

Zucker and Bradley believe that reparative treatments (encouraging the child to accept their natal sex and associated gender) can be therapeutic for several reasons. They believe that treatment can reduce social ostracism by helping gender non-conforming children mix more readily with same sex peers and prevent long-term psychopathological development (i.e., it is easier to change a child than a society intolerant of gender diversity). Reparative therapy is believed to reduce the chances of adult GID (i.e., transsexualism) which Zucker and Bradley characterize as undesirable.

Zucker says parents set the goals at his clinic. "We recommend that one goal be to help the child feel more secure about his or her actual gender, another to deal with the child's emotional difficulties, and a third to help with problems in the family. It's helpful to have parents set limits on things like cross-dressing, which many parents have not done before coming to us." Zucker's follow-up of 50 treated children found that "about 10 percent are still very unhappy about their gender, still cross-dressing, and thinking about having sex reassignment surgery" as young adults.

Zucker coauthored a statistical report with J. Michael Bailey that found gays and lesbians exhibited more cross-gender activity as children. Bailey claims Zucker considers transsexualism a "bad outcome" for these children.

Criticism

Critics cite "'reparative' therapy that seeks to reverse sexual orientation or gender identification" as an "extreme example" of bias that may hamper effectiveness of care, an approach that "may lead to increased self hatred and mental health problems."

Clinicians have called Zucker's therapeutic intervention "something disturbingly close to reparative therapy for homosexuals." Journalist Marc Lostracco described Zucker's therapy as "problematic and harsh." , and Author Phyllis Burke wrote, "The diagnosis of GID in children, as supported by Zucker and Bradley, is simply child abuse." Zucker dismisses Burke's book as "simplistic" and "not particularly illuminating;" journalist Stephanie Wilkinson said Zucker characterized Burke's book as "the work of a journalist whose views shouldn't be put into the same camp as those of scientists like Richard Green or himself."

LGBT activists protested Zucker's 2008 appointment to the DSM-V working group. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a statement questioning the APA's decision to appoint Zucker and a second member of the work panel, Ray Blanchard, who argues that certain manifestations of transgender behavior should be classified as a paraphilia or transvestic fetishism, terms to which transgender advocates object.

According to a response released by American Psychiatric Association, Zucker does not advocate reparative therapy for transgender adults or for trans youth in all cases, and he opposes change therapy for gays under all circumstances: "For all patients, regardless of age, the focus of therapy is the patient's gender identity, not the patient's sexual orientation. Dr. Zucker's therapeutic approach has no relationship to so-called reparative or sexual conversion therapies that attempt to change homosexual orientations to heterosexual ones."

Publications

• Gender identity disorder and psychosexual problems in children and adolescents, 1996, Guilford Press, ISBN 9780898622669, with Susan J Bradley
• Ex-gay research : analyzing the Spitzer study and its relation to science, religion, politics, and culture, 2006, Harrington Park Press, ISBN 9781560235576, coedited with Jack Drescher

References

1. Dingfelder, Sadie F. (April 2004). "Gender bender". Monitor on Psychology, Vol. 35, No. 4. Retrieved 2008-06-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
2. ^ Wilkinson, Stephanie (2001). Drop the Barbie! Brain, Child
3. Zucker, Kenneth J. and Susan J. Bradley (1995). Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents. Guilford Press ISBN:0898622662
4. Brown, Patricia Leigh (December 2, 2006). Supporting Boys or Girls When the Line Isn’t Clear. New York Times
5. Spiegel Alix (May 7, 2008). Two families grapple with sons' gender preferences. All Things Considered, National Public Radio
6. Hill DB, Rozanski C, Carfagnini J, Willoughby B (2006). Gender Identity Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence: A Critical Inquiry. pp. 7-34. In Karasic D, Drescher J (Eds.) Sexual and Gender Diagnoses of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM): A Reevaluation. Haworth Press ISBN 0789032147
7. ^ Goleman, Daniel (March 22, 1994). The 'Wrong' Sex: A New Definition Of Childhood Pain. New York Times
8. Bailey JM, Zucker KJ (1995). Childhood Sex-Typed Behavior and Sexual Orientation: A Conceptual Analysis and Quantitative Review. Developmental Psychology, v31 n1 p43-55 Jan 1995
9. Bailey, J. Michael (2003). The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism. Joesph Henry Press, ISBN 978-0309084185
10. Dean, Laura, Ilan H Meyer, Kevin Robinson, Randall L. Sell, Robert Sember, Vincent M.B. Silenzio, Daniel Wolfe (2000). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health: Findings and concerns. Journal of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, 2000.
11. Ryan, C, Bradford, J & Honnold, J. (1999) Social workers' and counselors' knowledge and understanding of lesbians. Journal of Lesbian and Gay Social Services, 9(4):1-26.
12. Pickstone-Taylor, Simon D. (2003). Children with gender nonconformity. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 266.
13. Lostracco, Marc (May 9, 2008). But for today I am a boy. Torontoist
14. Burke, Phyllis (1996). Gender Shock. Anchor. ISBN 978-0385477185
15. Chibarro, Lou Jr. (May 30, 2008). Activists alarmed over APA: Head of psychiatry panel favors 'change' therapy for some trans teens. Washington Blade
16. American Psychological Assocation (May 23, 2008). Statement on Dr. Kenneth Zucker and Gender Identity Disorder.

External links

• Kenneth Zucker profile via Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
• Kenneth Zucker at IMDb

This biography related to medicine in Canada is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This mental health-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This article about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer topics is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Living people
• Sexologists
• Sexual orientation and medicine
• Canadian medical biography stubs
• Mental health stubs
• LGBTQ stubs