A Clinical Approach to Childhood Gender Identity Disorder

This article offers a review of gender identity disorder (G.I.D.) with a case presentation of a four-year-old boy. The youngsters’ cross-gender behavior, concomitant diagnoses, treatment, parental input, and transitional objects are considered. The necessity of boundaries and limits at home and in therapy, guidance to parents and their involvement in individual and family therapy is stressed. The clinical material directs our understanding of gender identity disorder to the theory of conflict/defense as the most clinically useful, leading to a psychoanalytically-oriented therapy as the most promising approach.