Ray Blanchard

In this episode, psychologist and researcher Ray Blanchard discusses the historical changes in gender dysphoria (formerly “gender identity disorder”) diagnoses and the politicisation of a pathology that used to affect so few but which today has grown into a social contagion. Discussing his research in autogynephilia, the paraphilic tendency in some males to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of themselves as female, Blanchard elaborates why many transgender-identified subjects today largely reject the psychological disorder framed by the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) while necessarily needing such a diagnosis in order for the subject to access medical treatment.