Language and Identity
by Curtis E. Hinkle
2008
Language is important and the DSM is a document which is using language in a certain way – in order to define a set of diagnoses. But how does one diagnose an identity and that is what this discussion is about.
Why is it a valid statement if Bailey states (as he did in his own book) that he is a heterosexual man?
Why is it a valid statement if Alice Dreger states that she is a woman?
However, if I make one of those statements, why is that statement less valid? There is no way to measure identity. Hooking people up to measure their sexual arousal will never indicate anything about their identity any more than my giving people a test in English to determine if they were an American because there are Americans who do not speak English and there are people who speak English who are not American. We have rules for becoming an American and one of them is just being born in the United States. Other people choose to come to the United States and become an American but are they any less American? How would we determine who is more American than another person? This is similar to what this discourse is about.
What Bailey, Zucker and Blanchard are doing is using antiquated psychological methods based on behavior to determine identity. How does an American behave? Well, it would depend on the person who is identifying as an American.
Being an American is an identity but it is also determined by a process. The process however does not presuppose a set of predetermined genetic, racial or behavioral factors which define the category.
Being and identity (an essence narrative) are intricately linked and there will never be a way of knowing what someone's identity is without listening to them. Bailey and Dreger's identity as a man and woman is no more valid than mine and that is the problem. They are defining me and telling me they know who they are but they also know who I am. No. They do not. Only I know who I am.
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