@chaski Said
Not arguing with your nor disagreeing with you...
I have a question: Is a person who does not want to be whatever their physical gender is, mentally ill.
I know that question might not be clear so, examples:
A. Let us say that there is a person; Joe. Joe was born a male. That is, all of Joe's body parts are male from birth. However, Joe does not want to be a man. Joe does not like male things; clothing, sports, shaving, etc. Joe likes some females, but only as friends; that is Joe is not sexually attracted to women. However, Joe wants to be a woman; a female. Joe wants to get sexual reassignment surgery to remove his male parts and replace them with female parts (or at least the closest human surgery can get to it). Joe also wants breast implants. Joe wants to wear his hair like a woman, wear clothing like a woman, etc. Joe wants to have a meaningful loving relationship, which includes sexual activity, with a man. Joe takes hormones to help himself look more and more like a "real" woman. If Joe could, Joe would be willing to become pregnant and have one or more babies. Etc.
Aside from all of that
Joe lives a pretty emotionally stable life. Joe once served his country in the military. Joe votes. Joe has a good legal job. No criminal record. Works and works hard. Is mostly a good person (I say "mostly" because we can all have our moments of being jerks).
> Is Joe
mentally ill?
Question B to follow in the next post.
If the question is 'Does Joe have Gender Dysphoria?', then I suppose the answer would be it depends. The thing about mental health diagnosis is that one requirement of most DSM diagnosis' I've read requires that the subject be under distress and/or the situation in question affects the individual significantly socially, at work, or in other important areas of life.
Assuming such is the case we move on to the next determining factor.
This gives the criteria for determining whether someone has Gender Dysphoria according to the DSM 5. I'd say that 'a deep desire to transform into another gender', and an 'intense desire to have the primary or secondary sex features of the other gender' are fulfilled by Joe's admission to wanting to be a woman, and Joe's willingness to become pregnant respectively. So it would appear that Joe might have Gender Dysphoria as outlined by the DMS 5. More indicators would make a stronger case, but we don't really know how Joe feels about most of the criteria in the diagnosis. Of course it would be impossible to be sure without an actual psychological evaluation, but since these are hypothetical people this is probably as close as we'll get.
@chaski Said
Question B
(Again, not arguing with your nor disagreeing with you...)
A. Let us say that there is a person; Bill. Bill was born a male. That is, all of Bill's body parts are male from birth. However, Bill does not want to be a man. Bill does not like male things; clothing, sports, shaving, etc. Bill likes some females, but only as friends; that is Bill is not sexually attracted to women. However, Bill wants to be a man who dresses and acts like a woman; a female... or "shemale" in the somewhat rude vernacular. Bill does not want to get sexual reassignment surgery, However Bill does wants breast implants. Bill wants to wear his hair like a woman, wear clothing like a woman, etc. Bill wants to have a meaningful loving relationship, which includes sexual activity, with a man. Bill takes hormones to help himself look more and more like a "real" woman.
Aside from all of that
Bill lives a pretty emotionally stable life. Bill once served his country in the military. Bill votes. Bill has a good legal job. No criminal record. Works and works hard. Is mostly a good person (I say "mostly" because we can all have our moments of being jerks).
> Is Bill
mentally ill?
Now onto Bill. Bill is, from what I can guess, non-binary.
From what I can tell, this designation is acknowledged by the APA as an umbrella term. Bill want's to adopt the secondary sex characteristics of another gender, as evidenced by their desire for breast implants. As with the last example, we don't really know and can't really infer much about most of Bill's feelings in regards to the questions the DSM puts forth. That being said, if we accept that being 'a man who dresses and acts like a woman' is a valid gender that falls under non-binary, we can reasonably assert that this person wishes to transform into that gender, which is more indication of the presence of Gender Dysphoria. As with the last example, these alone do not 'lock in' a diagnosis by any means, but the question itself is reasonably raised.