Dissociating from sexed reality: How children and professionals fell prey to a ubiquitous symptom
by June Campbell
“We are rapidly becoming a nation sedated by mental health interventions that subtly teach us to accept and endure, rather than to stand up & challenge, the social & relational conditions harming us & holding us back.”
- Dr James Davies
Why is it that many professionals seek to medicalise individual children and search for a psychological ‘diagnosis’ that takes the focus away from the active participation of adults in the fabrication of a fantasy that humans can change sex? In the first place it is a question that goes to the heart of the difference between contemporary psychoanalytic thinking about human anxiety and the medical model that seeks to reify and classify emotional states such as anxiety, on an individual model of pathology.
In fact, most psychoanalytic theory has long since moved away from Freud’s notion of mental processes as being dominated by drives, instincts, and innate forces within the individual, to an appreciation of how the external world and relationships with others, impact on the nature and development of mental functioning, from birth onwards. In other words, no anxiety exists in a psychopathological bubble, as it is always experienced in relation to the external world of the child, whether that be family, peer group, or societal trends. Furthermore, the belief that an idealised, autonomous, and static ‘true self’ is an entity that lies in wait and is unrelated to biological reality, is a myth.
But what do we make of the fact that so many professionals, including psychologists, social workers, and educationalists, become fixated on the psychopathology of the child, but avoid raising the psychopathology of the adults who have conspired to create environments of coercion and confusion for young children? How do they reconcile, for example, the conflation, under the term ‘trans’, of the innocent anxieties of individual children, with the modus operandi of paraphilic men? How do they manage to equate the knowledge and understanding that very young children have of mature sex, including perversions, with that of adults who have gone through puberty?
Avoidance or dissociation?
Perhaps their avoidance of the societal aspect of gender identity ideology (GII) is unsurprising, because it clearly entails great complexity involving many interested parties in healthcare, education, finance, pharmacy, technology, media, and political fields. The ever-growing corporate involvement in the denial of reality is powerful, and operates through one identifiable mental process – dissociation. In 2023 Jennifer Bilek presciently noted that the link between technology and the medicalization of children was being disregarded, and that ‘we are all being systematically, sexually traumatized, and conditioned to dissociate from ourselves by this technology’.
Certainly, disassociation has a ubiquitous presence within the GII phenomenon, from children encouraged to reject their bodies, to professionals, and to institutions, including governments. Its presence can be characterised as a symptom of the whole, and an extreme version of a natural mechanism in mental functioning, that under normal circumstances acts as a defence against anxiety.
What we are witnessing now is the destructive element inherent in movements that are rooted in dissociative dynamics, from the individual child to the corporate machine. These movements are led by detached individuals who succeed in propagating ideas harmful to societal cohesion that are so anxiety-provoking that managers of organisations can rashly resort to authoritarian tactics by substituting logical thinking for new structures and policies. These changes act as a means of avoiding the conscious experience of doubt, uncertainty, or guilt. In turn, unthought-through policies succeed in shutting down group reflection, so that collectively, difficult questions are kept at bay.
The professionals asleep at the wheel
So, we must ask, is this what is happening amongst many professionals too? Are psychoanalysts, psychologists, and psychiatrists ditching their training in ethics and the pursuit of truth in favour of turning a blind eye to the actions of colleagues who support the lie that humans can change sex? Would they say, hand on heart, that it is not the proliferation of pornography, or the blatant propaganda and over-sexualisation of children in schools, or access to disturbing content on social media, that is ultimately responsible for ‘gender distress’ in children, rather than a theory of innate, individual desires and beliefs? Do they really believe that the phenomenon (whether they label children pathological or non-pathological), requires massive social input in order to uphold the belief that humans can change sex? And to what end? And for whose benefit?
These are core questions that are largely avoided by those who fear the chaos that might ensue, and who favour a retreat to the safety of the medical model which is based on evidence that cures are helpful, not harmful. Unfortunately, the problem with the newly formed speciality of ‘gender medicine’ that claims authority, is that no such track record of evidence exists, and no philosophical questioning is ever aired over the central delusory belief of sex change.
Genspect and re-pathologisation
A recent example of the promotion of the medical model is to be found in Genspect’s wish to re-pathologise children and adults who are assessed as having a fixation classed as an ‘extreme overvalued belief’ (EOB), that medicalisation is beneficial and the only real solution to their problem. This ‘transition’ ideation is a controversial choice for a new mental disorder, not least because of its application to children whose cognitive faculties are not fully developed. But more importantly, it bypasses the primary issue of ‘transgender’ ideation, as well as the issue of adults who do not wish medical interventions, but who use self-ID under the umbrella term, ‘trans’ that has been deliberately constructed to include children. And whilst Genspect acknowledge the negative effects of ‘cultural and institutional frameworks’ as contributing to the collusion between staff who support GII and children, the focus on an ‘underlying pathology’ in the individual, that external forces play into, begs the classic question of ‘Which came first the chicken or the egg?
This sleight-of-hand is highly problematic in relation to Genspect’s observation that the ‘pathology’ identified is evidenced by a willingness to commit self-harm through medicalisation, because from this perspective, we would also have to conclude that the armies of professionals who suffer from the same overvalued belief in ‘transition’, do so from a willingness to commit harm on others. We then have to wonder which is the most dangerous to society, the group of children who are powerless and suffering from a ‘pathology’, or the professionals who have the same ‘pathology’ but wield enormous power irresponsibly?
These are the questions that one might have expected from the psychoanalytic community, whose moral obligation in extraordinary times, like wars and societal breakdowns, is to come out from behind the couch and get involved in conflicts, as so many analysts did during two world wars. On this occasion the stereotypical silence is not an option, and there is certainly no reason why new theories cannot be developed. One need only look to the many precedents in psychoanalytic practice for inspiration to break the deadlock. For example, it must surely become a priority for disassociated staff groups to be supported in their return to critical thinking, so that they overcome their resistance to conceptual thinking, which in turn will strengthen their primary function of containing anxieties in children.
Conclusion
There is no doubt, as Jennifer Bilek suggests, that the promotion of dissociation from biological reality through overt and covert forces of propaganda, is at the heart of GII. As in war situations, the effect of the external world on the psyche is real and cannot be ignored. We must press psychoanalytic and psychological communities and their governing bodies to explain why they continue to toe the line of GII, and to resist open debate with those who are critical of this ideology. And we must also question the adoption of inaccurate language to describe what are metaphysical phenomena, a crucial error, as David Hume observed, that creates ambiguity and allows false or superstitious beliefs to persist. In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures are called for, and it is increasingly evident that those who do not use their knowledge and experience to stop further harm to children, must be considered complicit, albeit at the mercy of unconscious processes of dissociation from reality.
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June Campbell
June Campbell has a background as a social worker, academic, and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She has published on many disparate topics, including Tibetan Buddhism, homelessness, the pandemic, the uncanny, and Scottish influences in psychoanalysis. Her clinical experience in the health service included 16 years as an individual and group psychotherapist for victims of sexual abuse, and extensive experience of working with paraphilic men. Now retired, she is a co-founder and administrator of ScotPAG, a Scottish organization of professionals in Education, Health, and Social Work who collectively challenge gender identity ideology.
Jennifer Bilek is an investigative journalist who has tracked the funding of the gender industry for over a decade. She is creator of the The 11th Hour, a platform highlighting the connections between technology, transsexualism, and transhumanism. Her research into the philanthropic backers of the gender industry has been utilized for legal briefs, and platformed in myriad publications, films, and other media in the US and internationally. She has appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show, Steven Bannon’s War Room, and James Patrick’s Big Picture, and on various other platforms and podcasts. She has been featured in films such as No Way Back (2023), Gender Transformation (2023), and The Gender Delusion (2023). Her work has been published in numerous books and magazines, among which: First Things, Tablet, Human Events, The Federalist, The Spectator World, The American Mind, and in the anthology Female Erasure. She is the author of Transsexual Transgender Transhuman: Dispatches From the 11th Hour.
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Let’s hope the ”psychoanalytic and psychological communities and their governing bodies” can plow though this text and make some use of it.