Sabbatical Update: Thinking Through Transphobic Countertransference

I’m spending this sabbatical immersed in a project that has been at the centre of my work for years: transphobic countertransference—or the unconscious, often unexamined psychical reactions that clinicians, analysts, and care providers direct toward trans and gender-diverse patients.

While transference dynamics are often reserved for the clinic—perhaps even more specifically the psychoanalytic clinic—my research explores how these insights might be extended to larger social formations, including the current and devastating influx of anti-trans moral panic. Central to this inquiry is the question of what is being defended against when trans people become the targets of so many projections, wishes, and disavowals. And if these underlying functions are better understood, what might they make possible in shaping relational, ethical, and psychoanalytic practices that can interrupt their pull?

This sabbatical has given me the time (and headspace) to push this work further—drawing from my arts-based research, my writing in psychoanalysis and transgender studies, and the insights that emerge from both community-based work and clinical encounters. During my current residency as the Muriel Gold Visiting Professor at McGill’s Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, I have had the opportunity to work with graduate and undergraduate students across disciplines through my Dreaming Trans seminar series.

Through the lens of both transgender studies and psychoanalysis, our first session considered trans methodologies in research, and the second explored trans desire. Our upcoming third session will take up transphobic countertransference directly, using the theoretical tools developed in the first two seminars to think through anti-trans panic and its unconscious dynamics.

Working with students at McGill has been a real pleasure. I’ve had the opportunity to connect with many who are deeply interested in transgender studies but don’t often have access to direct mentorship from a trans scholar. That encounter has been meaningful on both sides—and a strong motivation for me to continue developing this work within the university.

More updates soon as the writing evolves… and, hopefully, into a book.