Nature or Nurture or ?
A Boy’s Life
Since he could speak, Brandon, now 8, has insisted that he was meant to be a girl. This summer, his parents decided to let him grow up as one. His case, and a rising number of others like it, illuminates a heated scientific debate about the nature of gender?and raises troubling questions about whether the limits of child indulgence have stretched too far.
This is a long article but I highly suggest finishing the article if you’re interested in psychology/psychiatry/counseling and current sociological trends. A bit of my background so you understand the ‘lens’ I use to view issues such as this. I believe disorders are primarily cause by the spiritual heart. I believe hormonal imbalances are real and are to be treated but the cause it not solely physical. Emotions and thoughts trigger bodily functions. Anxiety can trigger upset stomachs, embarrassment can trigger blushing. A personal example, I had thought that my tired state from lack of sleep caused me to be cranky. If I got more sleep, then I wouldn’t be cranky. My pastor explained to me that it wasn’t so much my physical state but that my selfishness and complaining came out more when I was tired. The solution wasn’t to get more sleep so I could control my selfishness but to repent of it so there wouldn’t be any selfishness to come out when I’m tired (or at least less of it and more manageable). Back to the article.
What amazed me from this article was that gender-identity disorder manifest itself in children at the ages of 2 or 3. The reasoning flows that since the appearance of the disorder is at such an early age, the cause must be nature and not nurture. There hasn’t been enough time for nurture to influence the child in such a drastic way. They cite examples of children behaving in certain gender specific ways despite nurture. They cite David Reimer who due to an accident as a baby lost most of his penis so they changed him into a girl and raised him as one. However he exhibited many male traits growing up and eventually changed back into a guy. This is an example of nature over nurture as the primary influence over gender specific behavior. At this point, I’m thoroughly confused. However, the author does a good job in presenting different aspects and approaches to the subject.
The author mentions Dr. Kenneth Zucker about 3/4 the way through the article (which is why I say to read the whole thing). “In his case studies and descriptions of patients, Zucker usually explains gender dysphoria in terms of what he calls ?family noise?: neglectful parents who caused a boy to over?identify with his domineering older sisters; a mother who expected a daughter and delayed naming her newborn son for eight weeks. Zucker?s belief is that with enough therapy, such children can be made to feel comfortable in their birth sex … Young children, he explains, have very concrete reasoning; they may believe that if they want to wear dresses, they are girls. But he sees it as his job?and the parents??to help them think in more-flexible ways. ?If a kid has massive separation anxiety and does not want to go to school, one solution would be to let them stay home. That would solve the problem at one level, but not at another. So it is with gender identity.? Allowing a child to switch genders, in other words, would probably not get to the root of the psychological problem, but only offer a superficial fix.” To this doctor the cause is family noise. “Chris, Zucker told them, saw her mother as weak and couldn?t identify with her … But about a month after [wanting to kill herself], everything began to change. Chris had joined a softball team and made some female friends; her mother figured she had cottoned to the idea that girls could be tough and competitive.” To Zucker, Chris’s early childhood view of womanhood was weakness. Chris didn’t want to be weak but tough and competitive, traits commonly associated with boys. Gender identity disorder ensued. I read this as sin. ‘I can’t get what I want as a girl (respect associated with being tough, perhaps) so I’ll be a boy.’ I can still hold to my biblical counseling principles.
I don’t know much about psychology or counseling. I’m afraid to talk to anyone about anything serious b/c I feel I’d do more damage than good. I’m all head-knowledge and theory so it’s a whole other story when it comes to real people with real problems. I just remember a prayer request by an older leader in our church during one of my SMA Bible Studies this summer “I pray that my boys don’t become gay”. These are very real problems that the world tries to solve in a variety of ways. My vote is still with nouthetic counseling; the root problem isn’t nature or nurture but sin and the ultimate solution is Jesus.