Tilpasningsstrategier på Sexologisk Klinik – En undersøgelse af transkønnede klienters forhandling af identitet

Abstract

Denne artikel praesenterer resultaterne fra 9 kvalitative interviews med transpersoner, der enten er eller har vaeret i behandling pa den offentlige institution Sexologisk Klinik pa Rigshospitalet i Kobenhavn. I Danmark har de to offentlige institutioner Sexologisk Klinik og Sexologisk Center Aalborg monopol pa behandling af transpersoner. Klienter der onsker hormonel eller kropsmodificerende behandling ma saledes gennemga et udredningsforlob pa en af disse institutioner. Artiklen viser, hvordan identiteten transseksuel kan siges at udgore en institutionel identitet pa Sexologisk Klinik, som klienterne aktivt udfordrer, folger eller indretter sig strategisk efter. I artiklen analyserer vi, ved hjaelp af Goffmans teoriapparat fra hans analyse om den totale institution, hvordan klienterne gor brug af tilpasningsstrategier i et forsog pa at handtere de institutionelle identiteter, de tilbydes. Vi viser, at klienterne i udpraeget grad anvender, hvad Goffman betegner som en koloniserende tilpasningsstrategi pa klinikken og saledes bestraeber sig pa at fa mest ud af institutionens muligheder ved at omstrukturere deres livshistorier, sa de passer til institutionens kriterier for godkendelse til behandling. I analysen benyttes en kombination af symbolsk interaktionisme og socialkonstruktivisme til at undersoge den relationelle karakter af reproduktionen af den institutionelle identitet transseksuel. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Ida Friis Thing and Viola Marie Skovgaard: Strategies ofadaptation at a sexology clinic: a study of transgenderclients’ negotiation of identity This article presents the results from nine qualitative interviews with transgender clients concerning their experiences with a public healthcare sexology clinic. At this institution transgender clients apply for approval to receive hormonal treatment and body modifying surgery. The article analyses the social process of clientisation in encounters between clients and mental health professionals, which involve the construction of the institutional identity transsexual, that is, some conditions for how the clients might perceive and present themselves. We employ Goffman’s theoretical concepts from his analysis of the total institution to describe how clients adapt to this process of clientisation by making use of a variety of strategies. Some clients are continuingly resisting the institution and the mental health professionals, while other clients adapt fully to the institutional ideology of therapy. However most clients take advantage of possibilities within the institution by creating narratives that correspond with the institutional criteria for the diagnosis transsexual. We employ a combination of the symbolic interactionist and the social constructivist approaches to emphasize the relational character of the reproduction of the institutional identity transsexual. Keywords: Clientisation, Adaptation Strategies, Goffman, Institutional Identities, transgender