Sex or Gender - Part I

Written by Sam Vaknin


Alan Pease, author of a book titled "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps", believes that women are spatially-challenged compared to men. The British firm, Admiral Insurance, conducted a study of half a million claims. They found that "women were almost twice as likely as men to have a collision in a car park, 23 percent more likely to hit a stationary car, and 15 percent more likely to reverse into another vehicle" (Reuters).

Yet gender "differences" are oftenrepparttar outcomes of bad scholarship. Consider Admiral insurance's data. As Britain's Automobile Association (AA) correctly pointed out - women drivers tend to make more short journeys around towns and shopping centers and these involve frequent parking. Hence their ubiquity in certain kinds of claims. Regarding women's alleged spatial deficiency, in Britain, girls have been outperforming boys in scholastic aptitude tests - including geometry and maths - since 1988.

Onrepparttar 126208 other wing ofrepparttar 126209 divide, Anthony Clare, a British psychiatrist and author of "On Men" wrote:

"Atrepparttar 126210 beginning ofrepparttar 126211 21st century it is difficult to avoidrepparttar 126212 conclusion that men are in serious trouble. Throughoutrepparttar 126213 world, developed and developing, antisocial behavior is essentially male. Violence, sexual abuse of children, illicit drug use, alcohol misuse, gambling, all are overwhelmingly male activities. The courts and prisons bulge with men. When it comes to aggression, delinquent behavior, risk taking and social mayhem, men win gold."

Men also mature later, die earlier, are more susceptible to infections and most types of cancer, are more likely to be dyslexic, to suffer from a host of mental health disorders, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and to commit suicide.

In her book, "Stiffed: The Betrayal ofrepparttar 126214 American Man", Susan Faludi describes a crisis of masculinity followingrepparttar 126215 breakdown of manhood models and work and family structures inrepparttar 126216 last five decades. Inrepparttar 126217 film "Boys don't Cry", a teenage girl binds her breasts and actsrepparttar 126218 male in a caricatural relish of stereotypes of virility. Being a man is merely a state of mind,repparttar 126219 movie implies.

But what does it really mean to be a "male" or a "female"? Are gender identity and sexual preferences genetically determined? Can they be reduced to one's sex? Or are they amalgams of biological, social, and psychological factors in constant interaction? Are they immutable lifelong features or dynamically evolving frames of self-reference?

Certain traits attributed to one's sex are surely better accounted for by cultural factors,repparttar 126220 process of socialization, gender roles, and what George Devereux called "ethnopsychiatry" in "Basic Problems of Ethnopsychiatry" (University of Chicago Press, 1980). He suggested to dividerepparttar 126221 unconscious intorepparttar 126222 id (the part that was always instinctual and unconscious) andrepparttar 126223 "ethnic unconscious" (repressed material that was once conscious). The latter is mostly molded by prevailing cultural mores and includes all our defense mechanisms and most ofrepparttar 126224 superego.

So, how can we tell whether our sexual role is mostly in our blood or in our brains?

The scrutiny of borderline cases of human sexuality - notablyrepparttar 126225 transgendered or intersexed - can yield clues as torepparttar 126226 distribution and relative weights of biological, social, and psychological determinants of gender identity formation.

The results of a study conducted by Uwe Hartmann, Hinnerk Becker, and Claudia Rueffer-Hesse in 1997 and titled "Self and Gender: Narcissistic Pathology and Personality Factors in Gender Dysphoric Patients", published inrepparttar 126227 "International Journal of Transgenderism", "indicate significant psychopathological aspects and narcissistic dysregulation in a substantial proportion of patients." Are these "psychopathological aspects" merely reactions to underlying physiological realities and changes? Could social ostracism and labeling have induced them inrepparttar 126228 "patients"?

The authors conclude:

"The cumulative evidence of our study ... is consistent withrepparttar 126229 view that gender dysphoria is a disorder ofrepparttar 126230 sense of self as has been proposed by Beitel (1985) or Pfäfflin (1993). The central problem in our patients is about identity andrepparttar 126231 self in general andrepparttar 126232 transsexual wish seems to be an attempt at reassuring and stabilizingrepparttar 126233 self-coherence which in turn can lead to a further destabilization ifrepparttar 126234 self is already too fragile. In this viewrepparttar 126235 body is instrumentalized to create a sense of identity andrepparttar 126236 splitting symbolized inrepparttar 126237 hiatus betweenrepparttar 126238 rejected body-self and other parts ofrepparttar 126239 self is more between good and bad objects than between masculine and feminine."

How is Coaching Different from Therapy?

Written by Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, The EQ Coach


Please consider this article for your website or eZine. Permission to reprint if byline stays intact and links are active. You may changerepparttar title if you like. Courtesy copy appreciated.

TITLE: The Difference Between Therapy and Coaching AUTHOR: Susan Dunn, MA, Clinical Psychology WORD COUNT: 1173 WRAP: 60 URL: http://www.susandunn.cc Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc Photo available: http://www.susandunn.cc/images/susaninstripe1.JPG

“The Difference Between Therapy and Coaching,” by Susan Dunn, MA, Clinical Psychology

“Oh,” said Bob, after listening to me explain what I do, “So coaching’s like therapy for healthy people?”

No, because for one thing there are healthy people in therapy, and for another, coaches aren’t doing therapy. In fact this strikes many of us coaches as funny, because we intentionally chose not to be therapists, and so are many therapists. Over 1/3rd ofrepparttar 126207 members ofrepparttar 126208 International Coaching Federation are therapists! In fact, I fitrepparttar 126209 hybrid of many coaches—I have a master’s degree in clinical psychology, but had a career in marketing and PR. Why didn’t I make therapy my profession? I was waiting for coaching to come along.

GRASS ROOTS

The field of psychology is at least 100 years old—Freud opened up his consulting room in 1886, andrepparttar 126210 American Psychological Association (APA) was founded in 1892. It is by all accounts experiencing major growing pains right now, and whether it’s labor pains, or death throes remains to be seen. Therapy was originally based onrepparttar 126211 medical model of disease-there was something wrong withrepparttar 126212 patient thatrepparttar 126213 expert must find and then fix. As in “cure.”

Overrepparttar 126214 years, there have been many changes inrepparttar 126215 field of psychology, with new names (Winnicott, Jung, Adler) and new theories (Rational Emotive, Cognitive, Behavioral), but all assuming pathology.

Martin Seligman’s Positive Psychology is a force in a new direction we’re watching carefully, andrepparttar 126216 fact that he’s started a Coaching School shows at least some affinity torepparttar 126217 coaching philosophy.

FILLING A NEED

Coaching evolved to fill a need that wasn’t being met. Haven’t you looked at least once at a professional athlete and said, “If only…” or “Well, sure, when you have that kind of help.” We may not all be 6’5” with superb reflexes, but each of us has a unique set of strengths and just as much raw potential to develop if placed inrepparttar 126218 right hands.

We all know what a professional coach does for an athlete. It’s a combination of teaching specific techniques and skills and a lot of work on “mental attitude,” or whatever it’s being called these days. (I think of it as Emotional Intelligence.) Sports coaches have long been intorepparttar 126219 mind-body connection.

But 10 years ago, who was around to do this for you when you wanted to build a business, or find a new career, or get unstuck, or create a retirement worth living for, or be a more effective father?

Not that you couldn’t do it alone, but it would probably go quicker and better with fresh insight, perspective, and perhaps some specific expertise. Coaches are “change agents,” but also are specialized. You may want someone who can help you with life balance, who understands your field (engineering), who has actually been a single Mother, who has served on a Board, who has built a successful business, who has been a manager or a professor, who has lost 50 pounds, who has helped someone else lose 50 lbs., or who is himself multicultural.

SO IT’S LIKE FRIENDSHIP?

No. Friends and loved ones have their own issues, agendas, perspectives, and points of view. They also “project”—that is, if they are timid, and you want to do something they consider daring, they’’ try and discourage you, and tell you it’s “for your own good.” I’m not talking about bungee jumping; I’m talking about starting your own business at age 50, or moving halfway aroundrepparttar 126220 world, or walking away from a 6-figure job because it’s making you sick.

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