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The Know-it-all Men Of The APA: Kenneth Zucker Print E-mail
Opinion - Global Warning
TS-Si News Service   
Wednesday, 14 May 2008 17:00
Left hand with suspect fingers.
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Springfield, VA. USA. Kenneth Zucker is a specialist in Gender Identity Disorder (GID) which he associates with homosexuality, both of which he feels can treated and “cured” with reparation therapy. Zucker will chair the workgroup on sexual and GID disorders that will develop the guidelines for the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), a revision to the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The final result, DSM-V is planned for completion in 2010.
 
To date there are no scientifically rigorous outcome studies to determine either the actual effectiveness of “reparative” treatments or the harm to the patient that may come from them. The emperor has no clothes.
 
Theories of "reparative" therapists define homosexuality as either a developmental arrest, a severe form of psychopathology, or some combination of both. In recent years, versions of "reparative" therapy have integrated older psychoanalytic theories that pathologize homosexuality with religious beliefs condemning homosexuality.
 
Unless Zucker’s philosophy is internally inconsistent, his professional goal is to pathologize GID.
In general we concur with those who believe that the earlier treatment begins, the better. … It has been our experience that a sizable number of children and their families can achieve a great deal of change. In these cases, the gender identity disorder resolves fully, and nothing in the children's behavior or fantasy suggests that gender identity issues remain problematic. … All things considered, however, we take the position that in such cases a clinician should be optimistic, not nihilistic, about the possibility of helping the children to become more secure in their gender identity. [1]
which he links with homosexuality
.. the most acute ethical issue may concern the relation between GID and a later homosexual sexual orientation. Follow-up studies of boys who have GID that largely is untreated, indicated that homosexuality is the most common long-term psychosexual outcome. [2]
At this point, we should note that GID is the feeling of psychological conflict with one’s birth sex (gender). GID is not Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS) [3], a neurobiological condition present at birth, since biology plays no part in the GID diagnosis. Neither is GID transgender (since there may or may not be a psychological conflict present) nor is GID crossdressing (since crossdressing is a behavior, not a feeling). None of this stops Zucker from unilaterally including HBS, transgender, and crossdressing in the definition of GID.
 
Let’s dialog with Zucker shall we?  
Researchers have been unable to identify a clear biologic anomaly or variant that is associated specifically with GID. There is evidence, however, that certain behavioral traits that are linked to biologic processes may characterize children who have GID. [4]
For the benefit of those who came in late, GID is the feeling of psychological conflict with one’s birth sex (gender). One would not expect a clear cut one on one relationship between a feeling and a single biological component, a single “eureka” moment when all is understood. “Feelings” appear to be the result of a combination of hormonal and neurological changes within the brain. Magnetic Resonance Imaging ( MRI) of the brain is still in its infancy.
 
Although there is suggestive research being conducted on HBS and related areas, I know of no one who is searching for a physical cause of GID, transgenderism, or crossdressing. If Zucker is looking for a smoking gun, a red flag stuck in a neural synapse, he will be out of luck (unless he would like to fund some actual hard science to explore his tentative theories).
Parents do play a role in influencing patterns of sex-dimorphic behavior but not in the simplistic way that social learning theorists expected.
Something TS-Si and Zucker can agree upon: social learning theorists are naïve (not to mention unscientific). Society and parents do influence sex-dimorphic behavior but the sex binary (male or female) plays a much greater role. Physical reality (the brain’s sex identity, the body’s sexual configuration) runs roughshod over the best laid plans of mankind. [5]
Tolerance and non-responsiveness was common. Encouragement of these behaviors seems to be more common than negative or discouraging reactions.
At this point, Zucker’s diction provides clues to his underlying philosophy and hidden agenda. GID (like homosexuality) is a pathology that should be discourage. Parents who encourage their GID children to act out their “fantasies” are doing harm to the child unfortunate enough to be GID.
 
Zucker lists three possible reasons for this tolerance.
1. Parental values and goals regarding psychosexual development;
 
2. Feedback from professionals that the behavior is within normal limits and 'only a phase';
 
3. Parental conflicts about issues of masculinity and femininity; and
 
4. Parental psychopathology and discord, which leave the parents preoccupied and unresponsive to their child's behavior.
Aha! At last we focus on the real problem from Zucker’s viewpoint:
  • The parents are just as screwed up as the kids.
     
  • The other therapeutic professionals, some of whom apparently see nothing unusual about GID, aren’t helping the situation: they are part of the problem.
     
  • The parents are really, really confused about their masculinity and femininity. Presumably Zucker prefers his fathers to be macho, his mothers to be properly femme (Donna Reed springs to mind).
     
  • The parents are so confused that they are pathological and need therapy from Zucker approved therapists.
It’s all mom’s fault. How classically Freudian. I wonder if Zucker smokes cigars.
Most acute ethical issue may concern the relation between GID and a later homosexual sexual orientation. Follow-up studies of boys who have GID that largely is untreated, indicated that homosexuality is the most common long-term psychosexual outcome.
So, if you don’t treat GID, the child will grow up queer. HO MO SEX U AL! I thought Homosexuality was no longer considered a disorder, removed by the APA from the DSM.
 
I would really like to see the long term studies that Zucker cites — I suspect that the sample population the data was taken from is skewed, perhaps because Zucker’s clinic only sees patients who have problems with being homosexual. Data drawn from clinic patients, like data drawn from students attending universities, relies on a biased subject pool that is self limited and unrepresentative of the population as a whole. [6]
 
Anyway, I infer that, at best, Zucker is uneasy with homosexuality, at worst, he feels homosexuality is morally wrong. Since he equates GID with homosexuality, his hands are unclean on the subject of GID.
Clinicians have an ethical obligation to inform parents of the relationship between GID and homosexuality. Clinical experience suggests that psychosexual treatments are effective in reducing gender dysphoria and that individual counseling and parental counseling are both effective methods of treating GID.
Wonder if he will present this position at the next APA conference together: Therapists have an ethical obligation to violate patient-doctor confidentiality and inform parents (and perhaps the police, who knows?) that the child has GID, which means the child has been diagnosed as having a strong potential to become homosexual. Gay. An abomination against God.
 
And then he suggests reparative therapy — brainwashing the child into believing they are who the good doctor says they are: a “normal” puppy dog tail boy or a sugar and spice pretty girl. And what evidence do we have that reparative theory works and causes no harm (and we have a lot of evidence of its inefficacy and harm), Doctor Zucker’s word, his personal, unbiased experience as a clinical therapist.
 
I, for one, would like a second opinion (other than Ray “I’m autogynephilic” Blanchard’s) and a third and fourth opinion for that matter.
 
Zucker points out that it is legitimate for parents to establish limits for their children on cross-gender behaviors. Then adds, if the behavior is not discouraged, the behavior is, in effect, being reinforced.
 
It’s all the fault of parents that we have so many people with GID.
 
If for some reason, the child is not reparated, not transformed into “normal”, zuckerly acceptable child — if for some reason the application of Zucker’s theories don’t work -- Zucker reluctantly admits that
Children and adolescents who are resistant to psychosexual treatment may be candidates for early hormonal treatment but only after all other options have been exhausted. The clinician may consider two options: management of the condition until the child is 18 and can be referred to an adult clinic or the early institution of sex hormones. 
Woah! Zucker has suddenly switched horses from the one he road in on. Zucker seems to think he has been talking about HBS, not GID. He doesn’t appear to have a clue what he is talking about. He only knows that he (and perhaps only he) can recognize GID when he sees it, and he doesn’t like what he sees. Damn homosexuals are screwing everything up.
 
Wonder what he would do with the male to female HBS women who have been married to men for twenty years, the women who raised their families, made love to their husbands, and sent their children off to school each morning?
 
I suspect he would say the husbands, obviously latent homosexuals, were part of the delusion.
 
Is this the man the APA wants to chair the workgroup on sexual and GID disorders?
 
Would you send your child to this man?
 
Would you go yourself?
 
I know my answers. What is yours?
 


[1] Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley, Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents (New York: Guilford, 1995), 281-82.

[2] Unless otherwise noted, Zucker quotations are from How Should Clinicians Deal With GID In Children? Psychologist Kenneth J. Zucker explains the current research on children and adolescents who develop a Gender Identity Disorder By Frank York.

[3] HBS is a medical condition that originates during fetal development inside the womb. (The genitals of an HBS man or woman are misaligned with the brain’s sex identity that was set before birth long before development of the other sexual organs. Sex Realignment Surgery (SRS) brings the outward genitals into agreement with the actual sex of the HBS man or woman. The end result is that the body’s genitals finally match the configuration of their brain and they are HBS no more. (cf. Siddebar)

[4] Unless otherwise noted, Zucker quotations are from How Should Clinicians Deal With GID In Children? Psychologist Kenneth J. Zucker explains the current research on children and adolescents who develop a Gender Identity Disorder By Frank York.

[5] 19th Century Nursery Rhyme

What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice, and everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of.

          — Anon.

[6] A problem endemic with much of the “research” in the softer sciences. The data and results do not scale up.

 
Ms. Lisa Jain ThompsonMs. Lisa Jain Thompson is the Co-Founder & President of TS-Si, Inc. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website. Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates.
 
Lisa welcomes your comments. You can use the public form below or send private correspondence via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
 

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The Know-it-all Men Of The APA: Kenneth Zucker
Wednesday, 14 May 2008

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..., My answer: NO! Although I can see reparative trea
16 May 2008     
Zucker the Kook, Ahh yesssss! Kenny Boy! Ask Diane wha
16 May 2008     

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