Audiences with Authors: Sham Bailly in conversation with Serena Heller, Author of “A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Female to Male Transition”.

The book explores, from a psychoanalytic perspective, the contemporary phenomenon of increasing numbers of natal females who identify as male, as well as the cultural pull to remove femaleness from self and body. Freedom of sex in the 1960s has morphed into freedom of gender, particularly in recent decades; this book focuses on the ‘why’ and ‘how’. Early conscious and unconscious recognition of the differences between the sexes can evoke a melancholic attitude towards one’s anatomy. During puberty, this can manifest as a rebellion against the developing female sexual body. The book addresses the complexity of female sexual development in relation to sexual object and sexual aim, and how manifestations of early bisexuality can resurface during puberty. When the tie between mother and daughter is markedly ambivalent, early forms of aggression can resurface onto and into the female body, which can sometimes become the site for enacted matricidal wishes that bypass the actual mother.

Non genital masculinity and the trans phallus are suggested as symbolic aspects of the quest for bespoke maleness, as is the bespoke nature of temporality, where the past might not inform the present in a linear or chronological rhythm. Gender identity is a central and controversial aspect of identity politics in the twenty-first century, making the subject topical and divisive, culturally, socially, politically and academically. This book offers psychoanalytic insight into this contentious subject, addressing female-to-male transition from a variety of perspectives. It should be of interest to clinicians and academics, as well as parents, teachers, trans individuals, and detransitioners.

The conscious and unconscious challenges for clinicians working with gender questioning individuals are considered and explored in the context of the turbulent climate that included the closure of GIDS at the Tavistock and the Cass Report (2024).

Please see the full publicity flyer here. This also includes a discount code which is valid until September 2025. 

About the speakers

Serena Heller, PhD, is a senior member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation. She teaches and is a training therapist for IPCAPA and the PPA Adult training. She is chair of the BPF Ethics & Professional Standards Committee and a member of the BPC Sexual & Gender Diversity Advisory Committee. She is in Private Practice in London.

Sham Bailly is a psychoanalyst of the BPAS and senior psychotherapist of the BPF. Her job in the NHS includes work with transgender people. She has a private practice and teaches psychoanalytic theory at the University of Essex. She has edited 2 books on Lacanian theory and translated and edited Francoise Dolto's The Unconscious Body Image. 

*If you are a psychotherapist or counsellor residing in an active conflict zone, you are eligible to attend this event free of charge (regardless of whether you are a bpf member or not). Please email membership@bpf-psychotherapy to enquire about a ticket.