Thank you for this informative and thoughtful approach. More information on the Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms can be found here: www.symptomatic.me .
Thanks for reposting this. I think I'm going to read Dr. Grossman's 'Trans Nation'.
Yes, this is what Dr. Sarno says at the beginning of his book 'Healing Back Pain': "...failure to treat the primary cause of the disorder is poor medicine; it is symptomatic treatment, something we were warned about in medical school. But since most physicians see their role as treating the body, the psychological part of the problem is neglected, even though it's the basic cause."
It sounds like Grossman, like Sarno, internalized these medical foundations enough to challenge the modern approach to treatment for gender dysphoria and chronic pain/conditions alike.
This brings to mind Genspect's repathologization campaign; it's important to see gender distress as a symptom rather than as an identity in order to allow for proper treatment--the basis of this being that innate identity does not necessitate modification. This is an additional barrier that chronic pain doesn't have, since chronic pain IS viewed is a symptom (although there's another barrier in this case: the true cause is psychological, which isn't considered in a biomedical approach).
The gender ideologues want gender distress as a condition in the DSM for insurance purposes. Since you can't change your sex clearly this symptom has something else behind it: autism, ADHD, concern over being same sex attracted etc
Sex mimicry “distress” lies with a compulsion to imitate the opposite sex successfully, not with any other mechanism. The compulsion can also fuse with delusion, and in extremely rare cases is sex dysmorphia.
People assume sex mimicry to avoid male aggression, and with men, to invade female spaces for sexual gratification.
Ulcers didn’t “Fade” because of understanding stress, they faded when they were recognized by Nobel prize winning scientists to be caused by bacteria.
It took two decades for medical practice to treat ulcers by antibiotics. Medical science still does not grasp the simple compulsion and delusion inherent in a natural behavior described in sociobiology - sex mimicry.
Although there are clearly cases of male-identified women doing so to avoid male aggression and autogynephilic men invading female spaces for gratification, I think it's reductive to put all trans-identified people in these categories. I'm curious why you think these are the only reasons why someone would identify as trans.
That being said, I think tying this to sex mimicry in biology is quite insightful. Sex mimicry, at its core, is a survival strategy. I'm arguing the same here, although it makes sense if the reasoning is more complicated than when seen in wildlife because we're human.
For example, Maia Poet says she was largely motivated from feeling like a pariah growing up undiagnosed autistic. Having myself been surrounded by trans-identified friends, it's clear there are underlying factors that make people more susceptible to taking this on (and being socially close), like obsessive personality traits, neurodivergence, and family strife. I think it does come from the primal part of who we are though--the part focused on survival and willing to employ whatever defensive strategy is accessible and culturally legible. This seems on par with your explanation, also. It is primal, survival-oriented, defense.
As far as ulcers go, using antibiotics to treat them has been a wonderful contribution of medical science. We need to ask a question of incidence vs. prognosis. An improved prognosis due to the discovery of H. pylori coexists with a decline (that started mid-century, before the H. pylori discovery) that has a sociocultural element and is related to stress (which works in conjunction with the bacteria). These two explanations coexist, just as an explanation of sex mimicry as a biological phenomenon can coexist with the predictive coding and symptom pool concepts I've laid out here.
Lying is a survival strategy, certainly in any number of cases.
Specifically lying about being female, sex mimicry, can have functions - avoiding male aggression, invading female spaces, but can have other reasons - feeling that one’s sex organs belong to another, e.g.
However, that explanation is exceedingly rare.
I tend to believe that the simplest explanation which covers the widest number of situations for the behavior is likely the best. The behavior tends to erupt when people are in physiological transitions - late age trans behavior; and adolescent anxiety are two periods of hormonal and physical change, and vulnerability. When best to avoid male aggression, when you feel vulnerable.
The essential problem with all of this is attempting to not view it as sex mimicry. That’s all it is. A person with the compulsion to sex mimicry cannot make factual statements related to the compulsion any more than someone with any compulsion can make factual statements which contradict the compulsion.
That is a foundational issue - and from that mistake comes all the mistaken attribution of behaviors to hide sex, but being convinced that they aren’t.
The stress explanation of ulcers is extremely limited - one does not get rid of an ulcer by becoming chill. Stress can render someone vulnerable to H. pylori in the sense that any stress renders anyone more susceptible to any disease. Only ICU level stress altering circulating to the stomach can induce ulceration, or NSAID medications which have a direct effect.
The vast majority of peptic ulcers are entirely bacterial, medical practice failed to fully adapt to that fact for decades, under a belief that peptic ulcers could be managed through stress reduction. Bacterial infections are not managed through stress reduction.
Interesting 🤔
Thanks for reading!
Thank you for this informative and thoughtful approach. More information on the Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms can be found here: www.symptomatic.me .
Thank you for reading! And for linking the site :))
Thanks , Amy very interesting.
I think this links in with Miriam Grossman's theory that 'gender dysphoria' is a symptom and you don't treat a symptom.
Have cross posted
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-bone-collector-part-2
Dusty
Thanks for reposting this. I think I'm going to read Dr. Grossman's 'Trans Nation'.
Yes, this is what Dr. Sarno says at the beginning of his book 'Healing Back Pain': "...failure to treat the primary cause of the disorder is poor medicine; it is symptomatic treatment, something we were warned about in medical school. But since most physicians see their role as treating the body, the psychological part of the problem is neglected, even though it's the basic cause."
It sounds like Grossman, like Sarno, internalized these medical foundations enough to challenge the modern approach to treatment for gender dysphoria and chronic pain/conditions alike.
This brings to mind Genspect's repathologization campaign; it's important to see gender distress as a symptom rather than as an identity in order to allow for proper treatment--the basis of this being that innate identity does not necessitate modification. This is an additional barrier that chronic pain doesn't have, since chronic pain IS viewed is a symptom (although there's another barrier in this case: the true cause is psychological, which isn't considered in a biomedical approach).
Hi Amy
I do recommend Dr Grossman's book.
The gender ideologues want gender distress as a condition in the DSM for insurance purposes. Since you can't change your sex clearly this symptom has something else behind it: autism, ADHD, concern over being same sex attracted etc
Dusty
Sex mimicry “distress” lies with a compulsion to imitate the opposite sex successfully, not with any other mechanism. The compulsion can also fuse with delusion, and in extremely rare cases is sex dysmorphia.
People assume sex mimicry to avoid male aggression, and with men, to invade female spaces for sexual gratification.
Ulcers didn’t “Fade” because of understanding stress, they faded when they were recognized by Nobel prize winning scientists to be caused by bacteria.
It took two decades for medical practice to treat ulcers by antibiotics. Medical science still does not grasp the simple compulsion and delusion inherent in a natural behavior described in sociobiology - sex mimicry.
Although there are clearly cases of male-identified women doing so to avoid male aggression and autogynephilic men invading female spaces for gratification, I think it's reductive to put all trans-identified people in these categories. I'm curious why you think these are the only reasons why someone would identify as trans.
That being said, I think tying this to sex mimicry in biology is quite insightful. Sex mimicry, at its core, is a survival strategy. I'm arguing the same here, although it makes sense if the reasoning is more complicated than when seen in wildlife because we're human.
For example, Maia Poet says she was largely motivated from feeling like a pariah growing up undiagnosed autistic. Having myself been surrounded by trans-identified friends, it's clear there are underlying factors that make people more susceptible to taking this on (and being socially close), like obsessive personality traits, neurodivergence, and family strife. I think it does come from the primal part of who we are though--the part focused on survival and willing to employ whatever defensive strategy is accessible and culturally legible. This seems on par with your explanation, also. It is primal, survival-oriented, defense.
As far as ulcers go, using antibiotics to treat them has been a wonderful contribution of medical science. We need to ask a question of incidence vs. prognosis. An improved prognosis due to the discovery of H. pylori coexists with a decline (that started mid-century, before the H. pylori discovery) that has a sociocultural element and is related to stress (which works in conjunction with the bacteria). These two explanations coexist, just as an explanation of sex mimicry as a biological phenomenon can coexist with the predictive coding and symptom pool concepts I've laid out here.
Lying is a survival strategy, certainly in any number of cases.
Specifically lying about being female, sex mimicry, can have functions - avoiding male aggression, invading female spaces, but can have other reasons - feeling that one’s sex organs belong to another, e.g.
However, that explanation is exceedingly rare.
I tend to believe that the simplest explanation which covers the widest number of situations for the behavior is likely the best. The behavior tends to erupt when people are in physiological transitions - late age trans behavior; and adolescent anxiety are two periods of hormonal and physical change, and vulnerability. When best to avoid male aggression, when you feel vulnerable.
The essential problem with all of this is attempting to not view it as sex mimicry. That’s all it is. A person with the compulsion to sex mimicry cannot make factual statements related to the compulsion any more than someone with any compulsion can make factual statements which contradict the compulsion.
That is a foundational issue - and from that mistake comes all the mistaken attribution of behaviors to hide sex, but being convinced that they aren’t.
The stress explanation of ulcers is extremely limited - one does not get rid of an ulcer by becoming chill. Stress can render someone vulnerable to H. pylori in the sense that any stress renders anyone more susceptible to any disease. Only ICU level stress altering circulating to the stomach can induce ulceration, or NSAID medications which have a direct effect.
The vast majority of peptic ulcers are entirely bacterial, medical practice failed to fully adapt to that fact for decades, under a belief that peptic ulcers could be managed through stress reduction. Bacterial infections are not managed through stress reduction.