Audiences with Authors: Sham Bailly in conversation with Serena Heller

Serena Heller will be in conversation with Sham Bailly to discuss aspects of ‘A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Female to Male Transition’, recently published by Routledge (2025).

The book explores, from a psychoanalytic perspective, the contemporary phenomenon of increasing numbers of natal females who identify as male, as well as the cultural pull to remove femaleness from self and body.

Freedom of sex in the 1960s has morphed into freedom of gender, particularly in recent decades; this book focuses on the ‘why’ and ‘how’. Early conscious and unconscious recognition of the differences between the sexes can evoke a melancholic attitude towards one’s anatomy. During puberty, this can manifest as a rebellion against the developing female sexual body. The book addresses the complexity of female sexual development in relation to sexual object and sexual aim, and how manifestations of early bisexuality can resurface during puberty.

When the tie between mother and daughter is markedly ambivalent, early forms of aggression can resurface onto and into the female body, which can sometimes become the site for enacted matricidal wishes that bypass the actual mother.

This book offers psychoanalytic insight into this contentious subject, addressing female-to-male transition from a variety of perspectives. It should be of interest to clinicians and academics, as well as parents, teachers, trans individuals, and detransitioners.