The management of pathological: Itineraries of transsexuality

Abstract

In the last DSM-5 update, transsexuality is ruled out as a mental disorder and is amended to the concept of "gender dysphoria". But what appears to be a concession to the process of depathologisation requested by different transsexual collectives continues to consolidate the medical protocols leading to the production and reproduction of a normative body within sexual differentiation. This category displacement, nonetheless, mobilises the assemblages of experts, doctors, legal and social professionals who shape the transsexual. From the bio-citizenship point of view, this re-definition places the emphasis on the mechanisms of the body's production, both in the medical environment and in daily life. Throughout, the article unravels the different mechanisms and processes through which transsexuality is shaped as a personal space for managing the pathology, and its results can be extrapolated to some areas in which relationships with experts are being transformed. In this way, the body clocks - marked by hormones, surgical and identity modifications, collective links and care relationships - engender a scenario in which the distinction between pathology and normality interchange in turn.