Early Childhood Traumatic Development and Its Impact on Gender Identity

The author clarifies issues of gender identity typical to contemporary Western societies. Nowadays, we tend to emphasize self-autonomy as the main target of the individual's development. In adolescence this may cause many questions as to the adolescent's conception of his or her gender and sexual identity. These questions are the outcome of early development, and thus early traumas may impact the entire gender development. In this context, trauma includes not only major violations such as sexual abuse, terror attacks, and so forth, but also comprises events heretofore considered minor.