With the retreat of the state under neoliberalism, the lack of (or negligible) government and non-governmental support reasserts grassroots initiatives as a global-change strategy. A feminist political ecology approach and the concept of adverse inclusion were used to facilitate an analysis of social differences shaping local-level adaptive responses. Adaptive responses of small farmers in the ...

In 2014, Erica Briones defended her thesis ‘The Social Construction of Fibromyalgia as a Health Problem from the Perspective of Policies, Professionals and Patients [1]. I had the pleasure of being one of the examiners of her defense. Through her thesis, shemakes several important contributions to knowledge about fibromyalgia. First, she uses an integral approach that incorporates three differe...

Sex differences in human brain lateralization are documented by studies on normal subjects, patients with the unilateral brain damage, and individuals with atypical level of hormones. However, there is no agreement as to the specific role of gender in the development of hemispheric asymmetry. This experiment was designed to examine whether gender identity plays an important role in the formatio...

This study aimed to provide further validity evidence for the dimensional measurement of gender identity and gender dysphoria in both adolescents and adults. Adolescents and adults with gender identity disorder (GID) were compared to clinical control (CC) adolescents and adults on the Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults (GIDYQ-AA), a 27-item scale originall...

Journal of Psychopathology 2015;21:152-158 Summary In the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, a structured assessment and treatment protocol for adolescents with atypical gender identities is used. This multidimensional approach includes specific phases: psychological assessment, medical evaluation, possible psychotherapy, gonadotropin-relea...

International instruments fail to specify the meaning of gender identity. Yet identity has been invoked as a prohibited ground discrimination, particularly in cases concerning trans persons. Trans existences fall outside expectation correspondence between sex and gender. “Trans” is an umbrella term referring people who do not identify with attributed them at birth. This broad definition encompa...

Gender differences in spirituality and related traits are an assumed reality despite the lack of empirical information that directly compares women and men. I used a national and longitudinal sample of 3,680 college students surveyed with the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey (2000) and later with the College Students’ Beliefs and Values (CSBV) Survey (2003) to e...

The rationale for dividing the clinical spectrum of DSM-III-R male heterosexual gender identity disorder into three types was examined. The DSM-III-R category of fetishism for female attire, was included in the analysis. There were 266 male participants divided into three groups: 172 fetishists for female attire or gender identity patients, 52 androphiles, and 42 gynephiles. A 16 item questionn...