Dr. Harry S. Benjamin's Gender Disorientation Scale

[maggiegee]

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l2/magi43/benjamin.jpg

Type One: Transvestite (Pseudo)
Gender Feeling: Masculine
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Lives as a man. Could get occasional kick
out of dressing. Normal male life.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Hetero, bi, or homosexual. Dressing
and -- more --exchange may occur in masturbation fantasies mainly.
May enjoy TV literature only.
Kinsey Scale: 0-6
Conversion Operation: Not considered in reality.
Estrogen Medication: Not interested or indicated.
Psychotherapy: Not wanted and unnecessary.
Remarks: Interests in dressing is only sporadic.

Type Two: Transvestism (Fetishistic)
Gender Feeling: Masculine
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Lives as a man. Dressing periodically or
part of the time. Dresses underneath male clothes.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Heterosexual. Rarely bisexual.
Masturbation with fetish. Guilt feelings. Purges and relapses.
Kinsey Scale: 0-2
Conversion Operation: Rejected
Estrogen Medication: Rarely interested. Occasionally useful to reduce
libido. Psychotherapy: May be successful (in a favorable environment.)
Remarks: May imitate double (masculine and feminine) personality with
male and female names.

Type Three: Transvestism (True)
Gender Feeling: Masculine (but with less conviction.)
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Dresses constantly or as often as
possible. May live and be accepted as woman. May dress underneath
male clothes, if no other chance.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Heterosexual, except when dressed.
Dressing gives sexual satisfaction with relief of gender discomfort. May
purge and relapse.
Kinsey Scale: 0-2
Conversion Operation: Actually rejected, but idea can be attractive.
Estrogen Medication: Attractive as an experiment. Can be helpful
emotionally Psychotherapy: If attempted is usually not successful as
to cure.
Remarks: May assume double personality. Trend toward transsexualism.

Type Four: Transsexual (Nonsurgical)
Gender Feeling: Undecided. Wavering between TV and TS.
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Dresses as often as possible with
insufficient relief of his gender discomfort. May live as a man or woman;
sometimes alternating.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Libido often low. Asexual or auto-
erotic. Could be bisexual. Could also be married and have children. Kinsey Scale: 1-4
Conversion Operation: Attractive but not requested or attraction not
admitted.
Estrogen Medication: Needed for comfort and emotional balance.
Psychotherapy: Only as guidance; otherwise refused or unsuccessful.
Remarks: Social life dependent upon circumstances.

Type Five: True Transsexual (moderate intensity)
Gender Feeling: Feminine (trapped in male body)
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Lives and works as woman if possible.
Insufficient relief from dressing. Sex Object Choice and Sex Life:
Libido low. Asexual auto-erotic, or passive homosexual activity. May
have been married and have children.
Kinsey Scale: 4-6
Conversion Operation: Requested and usually indicated.
Estrogen Medication: Needed as substitute for or preliminary to operation.
Psychotherapy: Rejected. Useless as to cure. Permissive psychological guidance.
Remarks: Operation hoped for and worked for. Often attained.

Type Six: True Transsexual (high intensity)
Gender Feeling: Feminine. Total psycho-sexual inversion.
Dressing Habits and Social Life: May live and work as a woman. Dressing
gives insufficient relief. Gender discomfort intense.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Intensely desires relations with normal
male as female if young. May have been married and have children, by using fantasies in intercourse.
Kinsey Scale: 6
Conversion Operation: Urgently requested and usually attained. Indicated.
Estrogen Medication: Required for partial relief.
Psychotherapy: Psychological guidance or psychotherapy for symptomaticrelief only.
Remarks: Despises his male sex organs. Danger of suicide or self-mutilation, if too long frustrated

Source: http://www.genderpsychology.org/transsexual/benjamin_gd.html (http://www.genderpsychology.org/transsexual/benjamin_gd.html)
_________________

[Ecstatic]

I think Benjamin's six types was a tremendous step forward and is invaluable in many ways, but I also think in many ways it's an outdated schema today. I'm surely not qualified to make any substantive additions or modifications to his six types, but I wonder if any others think that there are additional types which should be identified and what their characteristics would be. For instance, I think there must be at least one additional type along the lines of Type 4 and Type 5 but with high libido.

Any thoughts?

[Danielx]

mm this is pretty interesting

[Raquel]

Looks like I'm two years late responding, but...

No profile applies to everybody. Look up the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care for treating TS people. Any doctor who says you have to wear a dress and lipstick for some arbitrary amount of time to prove you're TS doesn't really understand what it means to be TS at all. When I finally started hormones I had become very socially phobic (and had been diagnosed with social dysphoria and depression). I ordered my meds online, but if I hadn't been able to and was forced to jump through hoops I think I would've just gone on a shooting spree.



For instance, I think there must be at least one additional type along the lines of Type 4 and Type 5 but with high libido.

He's going a bit far when he says "Libido often low," although "often" doesn't have to mean more than 50%, and low ... well, low compared to what? TS girls do tend to have lower sex drives than guys -- just like other girls have lower sex drives than guys. It's not that they don't like sex, but testosterone puts most people in a different class. Before I was on T-blockers I masturbated about 3 or 4 times a day. Now it's more like 5 times a week.

People with childhood trauma tend to have problems that manifest in different ways. Sometimes they become sexually compulsive. Sometimes they totally shut down sexually. TS girls usually had a tough childhood, so who knows where they'll be at. But TS girls do have more baggage associated with their sexuality, and I do know TS girls whose sexual issues have lead to them being totally asexual.

The important distinction here is that for a crossdresser the entire fetish is often sexually based. A lot of guys put on women's clothes then masturbate then feel guilty about it and would never do it in the first place if they weren't horny. A lot even shave their legs and wear panties under their khakis almost every day. In my experience crossdressers outnumber TS girls by at least 5 to 1.

[kalina]

The big problem with the scale is some modern doctor has to update it or create a brand new scale based on what's known thus far. Instead of sitting around and arguing that an antiquated scale doesn't work for us, some MD/PhD has to make the effort to update Benjamin's work and at the same time it'll take more than just one or two of us to convince doctors that a new scale is needed.

[autheds09]

Kissies are sent to Harry, get well, little man, we all love you. Thinking of BMama and KD.