TRANScending the Medical Model : A Phenomenological Study ofTrans People, Language, and Suffering

Abstract

This study investigates the phenomenon of medicalization of transgender people in the United States, focusing on the intersections of language - especially biomedical language - and experiences of suffering. The purpose of this study is to gain better insights into: how transgender people are medicalized, how such medicalization impacts them, the role of language in medicalization, transgender notions and experiences of suffering, and the efficacy of the current medical model toward transgender people. The author outlines a qualitative study of nine transgender people in the United States. Through semi-structured, open-ended interviews the participants offered valuable data on a topic that has scantly been studied. Highlighting their voices and analyzing their data offers new perspectives on and critiques of the medical model, as it has been applied to transgender people, and force a rethinking of prevailing conceptions of transness and suffering.