Gender Without Identity by Avgi Saketopoulou

Gender Without Identity Reviews

• 
  Kara Babcock

  When you really think about it, the idea of gender is such a fraught concept. How can we ever really know our gender? What even is gender, anyway? It shouldn’t be surprising I have spent a great deal of time in recent years thinking about this, yet I don’t know that I am any closer to an answer. So I was very intrigued by Gender Without Identity, by Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini. This discussion of gender formation from a psychoanalytical perspective, along with thoughts on practical application to the field of analysis, seeks to challenge a lot of ideas about what’s “normal” for gender. I received a review copy.
  
  I went into this book hoping to be challenged. It has been almost four years now since I transitioned. Much of that time has been spent rebuilding my identity around my new understanding of my gender. It isn’t easy. I know, and am confirmed in this knowledge with each passing day, that I am much, much happier living as a woman in this world (despite all the challenges attendant in our misogynistic, patriarchal, transphobic society). Transition has not only been a joyful experience for me; it has provided me with perspective and courage to grow in ways beyond or in addition to gender. At the same time, four years in, I’m not sure I have any better grasp on what gender actually means to me. Am I a woman because the label of “woman” enables me to feel more comfortable expressing myself in the ways I want to express myself? Am I a woman because there is, deep down within me, something intrinsically and ineffably feminine? I just don’t know.
  
  Gender Without Identity takes the perhaps unsettling position that this uncertainty is irrelevant, because gender itself is process rather than permanence. Key to this book is Saketopoulou and Pellegrini approach to gender, which rejects what they call “core gender identity” in favour of
  
  

  
  gender as a wildly improvisational process, which is not rooted in any “observable” or “objective” fact (e.g., body morphology or chromosomes), nor in any imaginary interiorized idea (e.g., core gender identity).
  
  

  
  They are quick to establish, however, that they are not seeking to invalidate how queer and trans people express the “story of their own origin” even if it includes “born this way” or other such core narratives. Rather, their approach to gender without identity is one of psychoanalytical praxis: it is most useful, they argue, for analysts to look at gender in this way, whether the subject they are working with identifies as cis or trans.
  
  Reading this made me think of Julia Serano and her theory of intrinsic inclination as outlined in
  Whipping Girl. Serano, a biologist, was unsatisfied with the idea that trans people’s identities are purely social construct yet also thought that locating transness within a purely biological cause was insufficient as well. At first glance, one might think this is incompatible with Saketopoulou and Pellegrini’s conception of gender as experience rather than identity. I’m not so sure. I think that both interpretations have value. Certainly, I recognize now in hindsight that I have always had inclinations towards the feminine long before I understood that being transgender was an option for how to label myself. On the other hand, Saketopoulou and Pellegrini’s framework helps elucidate why so many trans people, myself included, only come to realize ourselves later in life. It isn’t just that I didn’t know that being trans was an option; additionally, I hadn’t yet reached a point where I was ready to improvise in that way.
  
  So I appreciate that this book did indeed challenge me to think carefully about what I even mean when I say “gender.” I also appreciate Saketopoulou and Pellegrini’s unequivocal affirmation of the validity of trans and nonbinary identities:
  
  

  
  It is time for analysts and therapists to stop debating trans people’s right to exist, which is what we actually do when we question whether or gender nonconformity is but a manifestation of something else.
  
  

  
  I am not at all familiar with psychoanalysis and am perhaps wary of it (or maybe just wary of Freud, let’s be honest). My experiences with psychotherapy have been positive. Nevertheless, I know I am an outlier among trans people in that regard, and it doesn’t surprise me to learn that psychoanalysis as a field needs to grow. Hopefully books like Gender Without Identity have the desired effect in that regard.
  
  For those of us outside the field, this book can still be useful (as my earlier musings demonstrate). However, be forewarned that the writing is clinical, full of jargon and vocabulary that, quite honestly, challenged even me. Saketopoulou and Pellegrini are not writing for a general audience—which is fine, not a criticism of the book but definitely a caution for the general reader. I won’t pretend I understood fully everything that they discuss in the book. But I did enjoy this glimpse into how analysts and therapists approach these concepts, as well as the challenges of dragging the field kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century.
  
  So from this position, I found Gender Without Identity to be what I expected: challenging, occasionally inscrutable, yet altogether quite clever and thought-provoking. While I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it to just anyone, for someone who is curious about the intersections of psychology and gender, I think this is an important and powerful read.
  
  Originally posted on
  Kara.Reviews.
  
  
  
• 
  Ben

  As someone who is not a psychoanalyst, I found the main portion of this book mostly accessible and was able to retain some interesting fundamental ideas. The Laplanche appendices generally went over my head because I simply do not have the psychoanalytical vocabulary (there is a LOT of vocabulary, it’s like maybe 85% jargon).
  
  Would recommend checking it out if you’re interested in what appears to be the progressive cutting edge of gender stuff in psychoanalysis (that might not even be accurate - I truly cannot emphasize enough how little I know of the field).
• 
  Ish Tominey-Nevado

  ‘If we can resist the fiction that there’s something bedrock about trans- or any other gender-conventional or gender-expansive experience for that matter, psychoanalysis has a chance of discussion more openly and with less shame that all gender, is both delightfully stranger and more savagely violent than our theories can imagine.’
  
  This hit hard! The authors don’t shy away from contentious topics (the role of trauma in gender formation, the etiologies of trans and queer life, the ‘born this way’ idea of core gender identity), to the book’s merit. Often these conversations get avoided because of worries about their manipulation and weaponisation against trans people, but their point that it’s actually because so much is at stake that we need to have thoughtful conversations about the psyche and gender formation was really compelling to me.
  
  I really loved how celebratory the book was of gender difference and diversity, and their insistence that psychoanalysis can support the flourishing of queer and trans life.
  
  The case study of Orphy was incredibly moving too. Hearing about such a gentle, curious, supportive exploration of their gender expression really touched me. The thought of having a similar experience in the therapy room made me resolve to talk more about gender in my psychotherapy too. My gender and gender history often feels so complex and nebulous and confusing, the idea of having someone sit with me through all of that is a comforting prospect!!
  
  NB didn’t read the Laplanche chapter much I have to say, because I am lazy!
• 
  Robrecht

  Nog een stukje van de puzzel ofzo :) grootste deel is zeker te begrijpen, naar einde toe veel jargon! Suuuper interessante ideeën (maar had het liefst nog concreter gezien?)
• 
  Isidora Stanković

  Mostly written for psychoanalysts by psychoanalysts, yet I am so thankful to have visited. It’s a provocative book, but one I truly hope signals the future to come. The authors beautifully use a Laplanchean framework to give alternative ways of thinking about gender and sexuality - the main essay touched both my brain and my heart.
  
  On the acknowledgements - I very selfishly hope AS keeps breaking promises to herself about not writing more books. Her and AP’s writing is always searing, touching something.
• 
  Desp

  Για μένα, η ψυχανάλυση και ο ψυχαναλυτικός λόγος έχει νόημα μόνο όταν μπορεί να χαρακτηριστεί με τα δύο εξής επίθετα: α) κλινική και β) πολιτική. Ελάχιστα με ενδιαφέρει οποιαδήποτε ψυχαναλυτική οπτική δεν έχει πάντοτε στο νου της (αν όχι στο επίκεντρό της) την κλινική εφαρμογή της, ή/και δεν τοποθετείται πολιτικά. Η Σακετοπούλου και το Πελεγκρίνι, σε αυτό το κείμενο, αποτελούν παραδείγματα προς μίμηση, όσον αφορά τα παραπάνω. Είμαι σίγουρη πως δεν μπορώ να αποδώσω με σαφήνεια το ποσό αξιοθαύμαστα πολιτικοποιημένο, κουίρ, φεμινιστικό είναι αυτό το κείμενο, πόσο ευαίσθητα ξεδιπλώνει τον λόγο του για το κουίρ, το Κουίρ. Ήδη, όσα έγραψα μου φαίνονται ξύλινα και άγαρμπα μπροστά του. Παραθέτω μερικά αποσπάσματα, σε μια προσπάθεια να αφήσω το κείμενο να μιλήσει για το εαυτό του, με πλήρη αντίληψη πως ακόμα και αυτή η επιλογή αποτελεί κουτσούρεμα και περιορισμό των όσων λέγονται, αφού τους στερεί το πλαίσιό τους.
  
  "We're pushing back against the assumption that gender is immune to trauma, or that gender in order to be healthy, is uncontaminated by early traumatic intrusions, by adult interventions, or by the emotional debris of intergenerational pressures." (σ. 29).
  
  " [...] what makes one's gender feel one's own is not its independence from the object, but the freedom to weave together mythosymbolic codes, including the ones related to the parent's trauma with relative autonomy from the other's control." (σ. 69).
  
  " [...] labor [ is ] required to translate and elaborate any gender including cis gender formations. [...] cis genders are not expectable, natural genders: they too are genders that coagulate into a sense of self through considerable translational psychic work. That this psychic work is rendered invisible by virtue of its normativity does not mean that such labor does not exist, only that it's not easily apparent." (σ. 79). "[...] the category of cisness is neither spontaneous nor the default, and it requires a level of violence and dissociation for its maintenance." (σ. 81).
  
  Αλλά και:
  
  "Gender is, [...] about how something psychic appears phenomenally. What makes gender experience real is that it exists on the level of psychic reality, where, experienced as truth, it becomes central to one's sense of self. Even as a psychic reality, however, gender identification also requires the oxygen of relational recognition [...]." (σ. 25).
  
  "Gender is not a private language; it is relational, requiring at least two parties [...]. Gender implicates us with others, makes us vulnerable to their address, to the way they do and do not call our names, the ways the do and do not hold us in mind, the ways they do and do not lust after us." (σ. 96).
  
  Δεν το προτείνω για άτομα που δεν έχουν καμία εμπειρία στην ανάγνωση ψυχαναλυτικών κειμένων, πιστεύω θα τα κουράσει. Για όσα έχουν, είναι απαραίτητο, αναγκαίο ανάγνωσμα. Νιώθω ειλικρινά ευγνώμων που έφτασε στα χέρια μου.
• 
  aron

  The message of this book is amazing and (apparently) bold. They are putting up a fight in an academic field that is very conservative and very queer and transphobic, which is nothing short of laudable.
  
  The actual contents of the book, however, were rather tame for someone that has been immersed in more queer aligned theoretical (online) spaces. I guess the message boils down to: "what if, instead, we actually did not condemn, force or persuade queer and trans people, took them seriously, and helped them find whoever they want to be and help them being able to keep changing whenever they want in the future". A beautiful message for sure, but sad that this is as cutting-edge as it appears to be.
  
  A lot of the more hard-line psychoanalytic theory in the book is also more than a little lost on me, I am also weary of older and more established psychoanalytic reasoning but I knew this would be an issue even before I picked up the book.
  
  However, the book embracing and promoting, even celebrating, non-normativity and diversity, especially in queerness but you can read it in more broad terms as well, was extremely empowering, validating, and cathartic. I am glad I read the book, I think I am better equipped at thinking about myself, how I got here, where I want to go and how to get there. I'd definitely recommend parts of the book to anyone dabbling in progressive and intellectual queer spaces.
• 
  Ayoto Ataraxia

  I've never cried this hard from reading a book on the theories of psychoanalysis. Not because that was the goal purpose of the authors, Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini, but by putting this out there against the unspeakable censorship that we all know, they lead by doing as practitioners. As psychoanalysts who are willing to go not only where they should, they put themselves at risk not just as allies, but as accomplices, to where we must.
  
  Despite the specificity of this book, dealing with the issues of gender and identity within the conservatives of psychoanalysis, it is immediately evident the implications of how this shapes the perceptions of our reality and how much this conversation is needed despite being the elephant in the room. It is within the specificity that makes me reflect on how this challenges the macro perceptions, vacillating continuously between the personal and the political.
  
  I write this with nothing but admiration for the humility of Saketopoulou and Pellegrini for daring to go against the laziness of conformity. During this epoch of interpretation, where we all try to shield ourselves behind layers of protection and separation in the guise of professionalism, I echo the words from the book, "Yes, I will embark on this adventure with you."
• 
  Hemel

  Maybe the best and most all-encompassing overview on transpsychoanalytic research I've read, remaining accessible with a high concentration of relevant insights, what can I say, I am a huge fan of Avgi Saketopoulou. Two things that irked me where (a) the surreally short rebuttal of hormones influencing gendered behaviour in a meaningful way (if you use one source and only 100 words, that should be a sign you're not engaged enough with the subject) and (b) the... uncritical attempt at masking trans- and homophobic violence at the hands of female perpetrators (at the bottom of p. 7), when in the recent years there's been a lot of qualitive research overviews of playing along with the erasure of female perpetratorship being a huge issue as it is ~reiterating a cornerstone belief that upholds and thus perpetuates the gender binary~ in understanding gender culturally (and thus also in gender theory). "Way to tell me millenials wrote this", "I thought we've been over this but it seems we never will, sigh", but yeah, otherwise great.
• 
  HotEnglishProf

  i spent my afternoon finishing this book. i couldn’t put it down- which is rare with a theoretical text. this psychoanalytic (or, to be more precise, Laplanchian) account of gender formation is fascinating. it welcomes the trauma, intergenerational debris, cultural myths and symbols, and experimental self-theorizations that are all spun into gender. i think it’s a wonderful way of rethinking trauma in relation to gender and overall an account that resists identity politics and the fixity that comes with it by advocating for “gender as a becoming”. a quick read, and a great one!
• 
  lukas

  Táto kniha má obrovský potenciál sa stať novým must read kusom literatúry kvir teórie. Gratulujem autorstvu že nepadli do "butlerovskej" pasce lingvistickej komplexnosti, gratulujem že neopakovali staré tezy ale mali odvahu ísť proti prúdu, takto si predstavujem vedu, osobnú, ľudskú, milú, bez nezmyselných ideálov pohľadu odnikiaľ.
• 
  Sasha Usher

  Brilliantly written.
• 
  Farrah Rotman

  ushering psychoanalytic inquiry into 2023. a necessary & admirable contribution
• 
  Sally

  The Lapache part is too opaque to be useful but I really really love the central essay. So smart. I can feel this permeating my work (in my own understanding of myself even!) already.
• 
  Imogen

  Life-changing!
• 
  T A D

  Turns out you were important gay, but your parents absolutely annoyed you into being gay. And that's okay.
• 
  Julia Martinez De Velasco

  lo q entendí me encantó:p