Oren Gozlan is one of the most original thinkers in psychoanalysis today. In this very succinct and well-written text, he challenges the antiquated and prejudiced historical views of transsexuality perpetrated by the field of psychoanalysis and recasts the questions of sexuality, gender, identity, and authenticity by reexamining the puzzlement and aesthetics of desire. As a practicing analyst and psychologist who treats preoperative transsexuals in the process of transitioning, he provides an intimate view into the psychic reality of these people and offers a philosophy of sexuation based on sustaining internal conflict.
Rather than pathologizing or normalizing transsexuality, Gozlan situates the question as one of tolerating uncertainty and ambiguity. The need to define self and other, the individual and the collective, in terms of falling into scripted social or biological categories such as being either male or female or a particular sexual orientation is a fallacy, he argues, and serves defensive...
