ArticleJournal of medical ethics2021
To be, or not to be? The role of the unconscious in transgender transitioning: identity, autonomy and well-being.
Article in Journal of medical ethics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- How Gatekeepers Can Better Appreciate the Autonomy of Transgender Patients.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- A scoping review of the ethical issues in gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse individuals.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- Decentering cisnormativity and transnormativity in transition interruption and detransitioning research.International journal of transgender health · 2025Article
- Supporting autonomy in young people with gender dysphoria: psychotherapy is not conversion therapy.Journal of medical ethics · 2024Article
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy for gender dysphoria is not conversion therapy.Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Academie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent · 2024Article
- Gender detransition: A critical review of the literature.Actas espanolas de psiquiatria · 2023Article
- Interrogating Gender-Exploratory Therapy.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The exponential rise in transgender self-identification invites consideration of what constitutes an ethical response to transgender individuals' claims about how best to promote their well-being. In this paper, we argue that 'accepting' a claim to medical transitioning in order to promote well-being would be in the person's best interests iff at the point of request the individual is correct in their self-diagnosis as transgender (i.e., the distress felt to reside in the body does not result from another psychological and/or societal problem) such that the medical interventions they are seeking will help them to realise their preferences. If we cannot assume this-and we suggest that we have reasonable grounds to question an unqualified acceptance in some cases-then 'acceptance' potentially works against best interests. We propose a distinction between 'acceptance' and respectful, in-depth exploration of an individual's claims about what promotes their well-being. We discuss the ethical relevance of the unconscious mind to considerations of autonomy and consent in working with transgender individuals. An inquisitive stance, we suggest, supports autonomous choice about how to realise an embodied form that sustains well-being by allowing the individual to consider both conscious and unconscious factors shaping wishes and values, hence choices.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.