Middle Sex by Jeffrey Eugenides - Book Report/Review Example

Middle Sex by Jeffrey Eugenides 1. Discuss your impressions of the piece holistically Cultural background, environment, and genetics are the most significant factors that determine the personality and identity of every individual. These factors in broader sense include one’s heritage, family, socio-economic status, gender, religion, customs, beliefs, education, and many more. Analyzing a person’s trait requires a close look into his historical context and social conditions because these factors altogether constitute or determine the biopsychosocial wellbeing of every person. I chose the novel ‘Middle Sex’ written by Jeffrey Eugenides for my assignment because of its socio-psychological significance, sincere approach to intersex individuals’ emotions, and readability. The protagonist Calliope Stephanides undergoes a very intense physical and psychological metamorphosis that challenges her gender identity and thereby normal way of social life. The novel discusses how a person normally reacts to his basic nature and life situations, and how unkindly the family and society alter their opinion about an individual overnight. “Was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August 1974” (Eugenides, 2011, p. 3). This very opening lines of the novel point to the intensity of the emotional trauma the protagonists confronts in her effort to determine her gender role as a male. Callie is a scientist at her consciousness who constantly tries to make sense out of what she experiences around. She forms a hypothesis about the world, and constantly tests its practicality. As she becomes an adult, she makes a complex replica about the world and her state of being in the world. Kelly’s theory of personal constructs can explain further about the personality stature of Call. The theory explains how people act upon their ‘core constructs’, their deeply-held ethics and ideology in a particular situation. For an example, when people face with paradoxical information against their core constructs, there are likely any chances of changing their constructs according to the information they received. In the case of Callie, she is to undergo the differing experiences of opposite sex in a way that has profound impact on every sphere of her life. Evidently, she has lot many things to look back and evaluate the various processes of life that she underwent in order to determine her gender role. Years long pursuit of gender identity has affected her developmental process and perspectives. 2. Mental health issues that come up in the book Callie led a normal life until the age of 14 when she realized that she did not have the biological attributes of a girl and she belonged to intersex group. This realization greatly changes the mental perspectives of Callie. She significantly struggles with identity management because she is to undergo transformation from female to male. Clearly, Callie develops dissociative identity disorder. In the book, Callie narrates that she was born twice: first, as a baby girl, and then again, as a teenage boy. As she was an intersex person, she often fails to be like the other girls and this isolation worsened her mental status. The psychological pressures associated with this pathetic situation are beyond the control of Callie and she cannot simply cop up with them. In addition, she wanted to please those around her, particularly parents, and to appear normal. Although Dr. Luce suggested hormone injections and cosmetics surgery to complete Callie’s ‘female gender identity’, Callie thought that her parents would not treat her the same way if she underwent such a change. This mental dilemma forced Callie to run away from home. Then Callie wandered across the country and tried in several ways to change her overall physical appearance and to transform to a male. The main psychological issue is that Callie had already been marked by a female name and social identity, which poses challenges to her gender ‘reassignment’. Callie’s personality is highly influenced by numerous factors including her acquired perspectives and inborn genetic features. These factors altogether developed the dissociative identity disorder. 3. Assessment of the main issues “In general, transgendered people find their sense of self as female, male, or other to be in conflict with their assigned gender role” (Burdge, 2007). However, Callie seems to have a feeling that her “assigned gender role is incongruent with her sense of self” as Burdge defines it. This mental condition can be classified into dissociative identity disorder. A person like Callie has amble reasons to develop this disorder. Callie lives in a society in which people are hung up about sexuality. Obviously, to some extent today society creates one’s identity, and Callie’s gender condition will be counted as anomaly. This can cause adverse impacts on the intersex person. Other than the physical complexity they possess, hermaphrodites’ psychological pattern also involves unique characteristics. This challenges their sustainability as full individuals until their gender is medially determined and fixed. In order to improve the psychological status of the patient, it is important to employ exploratory laparotomy and proper therapy. In many of the cases, the persons themselves fail to identify their sexuality, and this intensifies their grief. From a psychological point of view, gender is the social, cultural, and psychological factors of maleness and femaleness. Evidently, helplessness of Callie as a Middlesex individual is never appreciated. In that sense, it is not just a change in physical appearance that creates problems but the mental and emotional transformation that takes place in the minds of both the individual and those close to him. For instance, Callie’s escape to San Francisco ultimately gives a kind of relief and consolation to the family. This shows the strength of gender perceptions in the minds of the family members and the society. And, now the person who has been brought up as a girl is concerned about how to become a grown up gentleman. This could be understood on the basis of social learning theory. As Norris (n.d.) describes, right from the birth Callie has been the victim of external environment that demanded her to act as a female in every walk of life. As she begins getting attracted to females again she/he confronts pressure. Anyhow, she (or he) shows courage to come out of the cage by deciding gender identity despite all social challenges. 4. How you might address these issues as a mental health social work practitioner As a mental health social work practitioner I would approach Callie from various theoretical perspectives. She took 14 years to realize her actual gender identity, and it is likely that I too might take much effort to identify her integrity as a true male. Callie’s struggles with her gender identity issues could have been avoided to some extent if Dr. Philobosian had discovered her alteration or if Callie’s mother Tessie had a closer relationship with her daughter. Such an early understanding could have also assisted her family members to accept the truth earlier and to treat Callie in an appropriate way. Furthermore, an early understanding of this gender identity issue would aid the family to raise Callie with an open mind and “let Cal’s gender come out naturally instead of by influence” (Summary). It shows the need of building interpersonal relationship as an initial step. It is important to convince Callie that she is a valuable person to the family and society. I may apply Interpersonal processing therapy (IPT) to address the issue of Callie in this regard. This method may help Callie to recover from the feeling of unworthiness, loneliness, and identity loss. Admittedly, Callie’s mental condition is pathetic, and the fact that there is a lack of consensus in the treatment of dissociative identity disorder (DID) adds to the complexity of the issue. The treatment is mainly focused on clinical approaches described in research works and medical journals and there is no empirically-supported or a systematic approach for treating this disorder. The common treatment methods recommendable for Callie include cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, insight-oriented therapies, and hypnotherapy. It is suggestible for the mental health practitioner to use behavioral treatments that respond only to a single identity. Under this method, the therapist uses more traditional therapies once the patient begins to consistently respond to his/her suggestions. Since a person with this disorder is not likely to trust the therapist, it would take relatively more time to establish a comfortable therapeutic alliance. Treatment of DID often lasts years and hence a fast recovery in weeks or months may not be possible for Callie. Generally the treatment of DID occurs in several phases because an individual with DID is vulnerable to various situational stresses or threats and different alters may appear during the course of the treatment. Furthermore, the therapist needs sufficient time to get familiar with two different gender states of Callie, and to identify the true identity of the patient. 5. Issues in countertransference for you: A close reading of the book aroused great waves of emotional impulses in my heart. Its pathos affected my soul as I comprehended Cal’s gender confusion and the grief of many other characters in Detroit. I ached for her unidentified aspirations to be a perfect male, and lamented her rejection due to loss of identity. I felt I would sometimes faint due to uncontrollable emotional outburst. The first part reveals the significant character of the young Callie brought up as a girl child and the history of Greek immigrants over three generations. Thereafter things undergo dramatic changes when she is to face the challenge of establishing her gender as a male. It is horrific how Callie makes her understand the real value of being lonely. I suffered when I tried to figure out her situation. Admittedly, I often realized my emotional enlargement with Callie and feared if I would also fall into the same hole of oblivion. I tried to understand the construct she created about her and the world according the experiences and inclination she had. I knew how I am likely to interpret the world if I encounter such situations in my life. Obviously one’s unconscious content plays a big role in one’s inclination. I feared, if Callie was my client, my unconscious hostile would interfere with my objectivity and limit my effectiveness as a therapist. There were several situations when I put myself into her shoes to assess the intensity of her mental agony. Such thoughts disturbed me so much that I suffered a lot from sleeplessness. I knew I would not have a proper decision if I were Callie. Furthermore, I knew if I went through such phases of metamorphosis, I would certainly suffer from isolation. Isolation occurs when a person becomes inefficient. References Burdge, B. (2007). Bending gender, ending gender: Theoretical foundations for social work practice. Social Work, 52(3): 243-250. Eugenides, J. (2011). Middlesex. US: Bloomsbury Publishing. Norris, D. L. (n.d.). Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Case study. Read More