Cis Pathology: Psychoanalysis of Cisgender

ABSTRACT

The expanding psychoanalytic literature on transsexual, transgender, and gender-nonconforming embodiments corrects the problematic legacy of pathologizing gender transgression. Despite the more prevalent use of the term cisgender in everyday speech, critical psychoanalytic interrogation of the concept of cisgender is mostly absent from the literature. If cisgender holds a privileged place in psychoanalytic discourse, why would further engagement with the concept be important? Turning to Freud’s work on anxiety alongside contemporary psychoanalytic and political thinkers work on difference, race, and gender, the author aims to pathologize cisgender not as an identity, but as a compulsory system. A psychoanalytic understanding of cis as pathology makes possible the exploration of sexed embodiment beyond the terms of self-enclosed identities.

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Daniel Polyak

Daniel Polyak, L.P., M.A., is a New York City-based psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. He also teaches in the Women and Gender Studies program at Hunter College. He is the author, most recently, of an essay in Parapraxis called “A Comfy Gender: Transitional Spaces and Virtual Reality,” and a collaborative artist book Penis Envy.