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The term [[gender ]] [[identity]], [[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 gender to distinguish [[ideas ]] and experiences of [[masculinity ]] and femininity—both socially determined psychological constructs—from sex, 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—gender identity—from the earlier [[awareness ]] of [[sexual ]] [[difference]], what he calls core [[gender identity]], 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.

See also: [[Femininity]]; [[Feminism ]] and [[psychoanalysis]]; Identity; [[Imaginary ]] identification/symbolic identification; [[Masculinity/femininity]]; [[Perversion]]; [[Sexual differences]]; Stoller, Robert J.; Transsexualism.[[Bibliography]]