The term <i>[[gender identity]]</i>, [[meaning]] a person's relative [[sense]] of his or her own [[masculine]] or [[feminine]] [[identity]], was first used in 1965 by John [[Money]] (Money, 1965). The term was introduced into the [[psychoanalytic]] [[literature]] by Robert Stoller in [[1968]] (Stoller, 1968).Money used the term to distinguish the [[subjective]] [[experience]] of [[gender]] from the [[concept]] of "gender [[role]]" which he used to describe the socially determined attributes of gender.Stoller (1968) developed the [[idea]] further to distinguish between the [[psychological]] and [[biological]] dimensions of sex. He used <i>gender</i> to distinguish [[ideas]] and experiences of [[masculinity]] and femininity—both socially determined psychological constructs—from <i>sex</i>, the [[biologically]] determined traits of maleness and femaleness. This usage has become the standard in psychoanalytically derived discussions of gender and [[sexuality]] to refer to the psychological aspects of sexuality, what [[Freud]] (1925) called "[[psychical]] consequences of the [[anatomical]] [[distinction]] between the [[sexes]]."Stoller (1968) further distinguishes the general sense of masculinity and femininity—<i>gender identity</i>—from the earlier [[awareness]] of [[sexual]] [[difference]], what he calls <i>core gender identity</i>, a relatively fixed sense of maleness or femaleness usually consolidated by the second year of [[life]], prior to the [[oedipal]] [[phase]].Stoller [[identifies]] [[three]] components in the [[formation]] of core gender identity: 1) Biological and hormonal influences; 2) Sex assignment at [[birth]]; 3) Environmental and psychological influences with effects similar to imprinting.In contrast to Freud's [[belief]] that the primary [[identification]] is masculine, Stoller believes that both the boy and the [[girl]] begin with a [[female]] core gender identity obtained from the [[maternal]] symbiosis. Core gender identity is derived non-conflictually through identification and, in [[essence]], learning. Failure to interrupt the maternal symbiosis pre-oedipally with boys may result in permanent core gender identity disorders like transsexualism. Otherwise, normal [[development]] facilitates the boy's shift to a [[male]] core gender identity and the subsequent oedipal conflicts associated with obtaining a masculine gender identity.The concept of gender identity is important historically because it separates masculine and feminine [[psychology]] from the innate biological [[determinism]] suggested by Freud. Increasing attention to the diversity and [[multiplicity]] of the origins and workings of gender have made even the [[terms]] gender identity and core gender identity less than adequate to describe the nuances of such a central organizing factor of [[personality]] and [[behavior]]. It is important to differentiate the term, gender identity, which describes the [[individual]]'s sense of gender, from Stoller's speculative [[theory]] [[about]] the origins of core gender identity.
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Sexuality]]
[[Category:Postmodern theory]]
[[Category:Glossary]]
