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Two Narratives of Gender Identity: From a 1940's Individual and a 2020’s Parent

Sponsored by AAPCSW/NIPER-NY Area.
[ No CE Hours ]

Date: Sunday, November 1, 2026
Time: 11:00 am - 1:00 pm EST
Fee: Free.
Location: Online via ZOOM

Register Online
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8W8jKGgYTcylLojaDS171A

For more information, contact:
Penny Rosen, rosenpmsw@aol.com


Program

Two Narratives of Gender Identity

Part 1 - Jane Abrams, DSW, LCSW
A Life Interrupted

This presentation describes the life of CW, who experienced gender incongruence after going through puberty in the late 1940’s. She was misdiagnosed, as a high school student, with schizophrenia, leading to decades of psychiatric hospitalizations and ineffective treatment. Based on interviews with CW, this presentation illustrates the clinical, ethical, and political importance of proper diagnosis and treatment, highlighting the devastating long-term consequences of misunderstanding, by mental health practitioners, of gender identity struggles in their patients, especially teenagers.

After attending the presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Describe how our mental health system failed to accurately diagnose and effectively treat a teenager who sought treatment for gender dysphoria.
  • Discuss long-term consequences of psychiatric misdiagnosis of gender questioning teenagers.

References

Omary, A. (2026). A Biopsychosocial Model of Adolescent Gender Dysphoria (Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University).

Saketopoulou, A. (2014). Mourning the body as bedrock: Developmental considerations in treating transsexual patients analytically. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 62(5), 773-806. https.//doi/10.1177/0003065114553102

Friston, K., & Kiebel, S. (2009). Predictive coding under the free-energy principle. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1521), 1211. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article-abstract/364/1521/1211/45615

Education and Practice Gap

Theoretical and empirical sources are crucial to our understanding of gender dysphoria and transgenderism. The personal reflections of CW fill gaps in our knowledge of the history of the mistreatment of gender questioning individuals in the mental health system in the US and highlight, from CW’s unique perspective, the suffering and lost opportunities that can result from misdiagnosis in teens.


Part 2 - Barbara L. Gamble, MS, LLP
The Internal Developmental Experience of Parents Who Have a Gender Variant Child

Parenting gender variant children presents challenges both to parents’ internal development and to their tasks of parenting. There is little literature that directly addresses parents’ internal emotional experience of their child’s gender variance. In this paper, parent development and parenting tasks particularly relevant to parenting children with “differences” are reviewed along with Diane Ehrensaft’s delineation of parent experience with gender variant youth. Next, assumptions and biases are considered. Then, as the central focus, the presenter describes and discusses her own journey with a gender-variant child, augmented by the experiences of others.

After attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Identify developmental stages and tasks of parenting a gender variant child.
  • Discuss the importance of parents’ working through their internal conflicts evoked by parenting a gender variant child, in order to optimally address challenges for their children.

References

Saketopoulou, A. & Pellegrini, A. (2023). Gender Without Identity. New York: Unconscious in Translation.

Marcus, L., Marcus, K., Yaxte, S. M., & Marcus, K. (2015). Genderqueer: One family’s experience with gender variance. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 35(8), 795-808. https://doi.org/10.1080/07351690.2015.1087287

Abbasi, A., & McNamara, S. (2015). The body one is: The best form of containment or The Crying Game redux. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 35(8), 786-794. https://doi.org/10.1080/07351690.2015.1087285

Education and Practice Gap

There is little in the psychoanalytic literature that directly addresses the parenting experience with gender variant youth and how to support parents in this experience. This paper fills that gap by referencing psychoanalytic literature on parenting and gender with a personal parenting case study and clinical case study to explicate this parenting experience, to expand clinicians’ competence working with parents of gender variant youth.

Q&A


BIOS

Jane Abrams, DSW, LCSW — Area Chair, Pennsylvania, AAPCSW. Lecturer, School of Social Policy and Practice, Univ of Pennsylvania. Research Digest Editor, Neuropsychoanalyis. Author, articles on teaching trauma in MSW programs, projective processes in couples, clinical applications of neuropsychoanaltyic theory. Private Practice, Philadelphia, PA.

Karen E. Baker, MSW — Past President, AAPCSW. MI Council for Psa. and Psychotherapy. Faculty, Institute for Clinical Social Work-Chicago. Past Child Development Director, Allen Creek Preschool. Author, articles on schizoid and sadomasochistic defenses, dissociation, parent work, and child analysis. Co-editor, Special Issue, Child/Adolescent Psychoanalysis/Psychotherapy, PSW. Distinguished practitioner, National Academies of Practice. Private Practice, Ann Arbor, MI.

Barbara L Gamble, MS, LLP — Faculty, Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute (MPI). Co-Director, Adult and Child/Adolescent Advanced Psychoanalytic Therapy Program (ACAPP), MPI. Member, AAPCSW; and the Association for Child Psychoanalysis (ACP). Author, paper on parents with a gender variant child. Private Practice, Ann Arbor, MI.

Penny Rosen, MSW, LCSW, BCD-P — NY Area Chair, Past-President, AAPCSW; Board Member, NPAP, NY Inst for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, ACPEinc. Recipient, Distinguished Practitioner, NAP; AAPCSW Lifetime Achievement Award (2021). Reviewer, CSWJ. Private Practice, New York, NY.