HARRY BENJAMIN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF TRANSIDENTITIES

Abstract

The objective of this work was to investigate and identify how the term transsexual emerged, who was the author who first described the term and what are the contributions of this "new" nomenclature to the way in which transidentities are treated by medicine in current times. This study was designed as qualitative, descriptive and exploratory, which focused mainly on the publication, in 1966, of The Transsexual Phenomenon by Harry Benjamin. The process of selecting authors for corpus analysis was intentional, not exhaustive, permeated by Foucauldian discourse analysis and other authors of Queer Theory. The results indicate that the author classified and conceptualized the manifestations of sex, namely: chromosomal, genetic, anatomical, legal, gonodal, germinal, endocrine (hormonal), psychological and social. On the other hand, a reflection by the author himself about how the term sex was used is evident, as well as the use of the term gender, which was often used interchangeably by him. Benjamin also differentiated between what he called transvestites and transsexuals, as well as referring to this issue as someone who was born with the wrong body, something that is still talked about today, even though it is not exactly about this issue. He lived at a time when being trans became a topic within the scope of Medicine, so he treated the issue in a more medical way, despite at times still using Psychology. It can be concluded that Harry Benjamin's contributions to the study of transidentities are undeniable, given that his avant-garde approach to the subject promoted modes of “diagnosis” and “treatment” still in force today.