Meant to also include this quote, referring to the "Benjamin scale" (http://www.genderpsychology.org/transsexual/benjamin_gd.html) he created to classify and understand various forms and subtypes of transvestism and transsexualism.
"It must be emphasized again that the remaining six types are not and never can be sharply separated." - Harry Benjamin, Pg. 23 of his 1966 book, "The transsexual phenomenon".
The scale included three types of "Transvestites," some of whom "may live and be accepted as woman;" a category for "Transsexual (Nonsurgical)" -- who "may live as a man or woman; sometimes alternating;" and two categories of "True Transexual" (moderate and high intensity), both of whom wanted surgery but not all of them obtained it.
(FYI, the scale refers to sexuality based on their birth genitals, something Benjamin later said was reflective of the attitudes of the time but pedantic and missing the point about how trans people saw their own sexuality. There's also other language used in the scale that considered outmoded or even objectionable today, and it's worth remembering that while it was an important theoretical advance at the time, 40 years of subsequent research has given us more insights and evidence than Benjamin had available at the time).
Re: Two points
Meant to also include this quote, referring to the "Benjamin scale" (http://www.genderpsychology.org/transsexual/benjamin_gd.html) he created to classify and understand various forms and subtypes of transvestism and transsexualism.
"It must be emphasized again that the remaining six types are not and never can be sharply separated." - Harry Benjamin, Pg. 23 of his 1966 book, "The transsexual phenomenon".
The scale included three types of "Transvestites," some of whom "may live and be accepted as woman;" a category for "Transsexual (Nonsurgical)" -- who "may live as a man or woman; sometimes alternating;" and two categories of "True Transexual" (moderate and high intensity), both of whom wanted surgery but not all of them obtained it.
(FYI, the scale refers to sexuality based on their birth genitals, something Benjamin later said was reflective of the attitudes of the time but pedantic and missing the point about how trans people saw their own sexuality. There's also other language used in the scale that considered outmoded or even objectionable today, and it's worth remembering that while it was an important theoretical advance at the time, 40 years of subsequent research has given us more insights and evidence than Benjamin had available at the time).
Lena Dahlstrom