Identity and the Foundational Myth

Marcus Evans is a psychoanalyst and fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society. He was a consultant psychotherapist and mental health nurse with forty years of experience in mental health. He was head of the nursing discipline at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust between 1998 and 2018. He was also the lead clinician in the adult and adolescent service and one of the founding members of Fitzjohn’s Service for the treatment of patients with severe and enduring mental health conditions and/or personality disorders. He has written and taught extensively on applying psychoanalytic thinking in mental health settings. Karnac published the first, Making Room for Madness in Mental Health: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Psychotic Communications, in 2016.His second book, Psychoanalytic Thinking in Mental Health Settings, introduces front-line mental health professionals to psychoanalytic thinking and was published by Routledge in 2020.The following year his third book, Gender Dysphoria: A Therapeutic Model for Working with Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults, written with his wife, Susan, was published by Phoenix.

• AcknowledgementsAbout the authorPreface by R. D. HinshelwoodForeword by Ron BrittonIntroduction Part I. Overview and backgroundIntroductionIntroduction to early childhood developmentSome observed aspects of trans-identifying individualsAspects of psychoanalytic assessment and treatment of gender dysphoric young people Part II: Case studiesIntroduction to Part IIDifficulty taking ownership of the body and the adult sexual bodyFragile ego prone to fragmentation and concrete thinkingExploring identity and transference: A psychoanalytic journey through early trauma and gender dysphoriaEroticised as a defence against separationKilling off the good little boy: Illness in childhoodMourning the loss of the ideal self: Short-term work with a trans patient post-transitionConclusion ReferencesIndex

‘This is a moving and in-depth book of a psychoanalytical pioneer in the exploration of identity problems which accompany the individual over a lifetime. It is based on the author’s sound clinical experience and empirical knowledge and gives testimony of his courageous and unprejudiced journey with his patients throughout their crisis. At the same time, it goes to the heart of psychoanalytical ethics and the painful task to acknowledge some “basic facts of life” which we all would rather like to distort or omnipotently deny.’