RANSVESTIA

psychological, psychiatric or social worker capacities. Many of these people feel real compassion and concern and feel that they are helping these unfortunate people. We'll have to give credit where it is due.

By the same token I don't want anyone to get the idea that I am one- hundred percent opposed to the surgery as I am not. I have met several individuals for whom I would recommend the surgery if I were to have any say in the matter. But these are in the extreme minority of those claiming that surgery is the answer to their life's problems. Of course in the majority of cases it isn't and this is shown in a good many indirect ways. You will very seldom get one of the operatees to admit to you that they should not have had the surgery, although this does occur some- times.

When one goes through the professional literature or sits in profession- al gatherings and listens to the professionals talk about the proportion of operatees that make good adjustments and for whom the surgery ap- pears to be a success, the question inevitably comes up in my mind on what basis to judge the success of the individual? Almost invariably it is a subjective decision on the part of a doctor who interviews the persons and in effect asks them how they are getting along, what prob- lems they have, are they happy, etc., etc. Having talked to a number of such persons before surgery and learning how adamant they are — "my mind is made up, don't bother me with facts” how dedicated to the idea of obtaining surgery they are and seeing to what degree they will go to obtain the money on the one hand and to find a doctor on the other hand who will do the actual surgery, this method of determining success is ridiculous.

Anyone who has invested not just the money but the anxiety, the emo- tion, the argument, the persuasion, the manipulation and the dedication and sheer intensity of effort that these people do invest in achieving their ends is very unlikely to be able to admit to themselves, much less the doctor, that perhaps they shouldn't have done it after all and that life as a woman is not such a bed of roses, and that they really didn't escape from all their life's problems, and in summary they are not really as happy and well-adjusted as they make themselves out to be. There is the need to justify the actions they took and the enormous amount of energy and effort they expended in doing it. The psychologists have a term for

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