Lisa Littman

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Lisa L. Littman is an American physician, researcher and university professor at the School of Public Health of Brown University . She gained fame in 2018 with her controversial study on the phenomenon of rapid-onset gender dysphoria in young people who identify themselves as transgender .

Education and career

Littman graduated from Brandeis University in 1988. She graduated from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School , now part of Rutgers University , with a doctorate in medicine (MD) in 1992 . As part of her specialist training , she worked in the areas of gynecology and obstetrics at the Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and in the areas of disease prevention and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where she also received an additional master's degree in 2007 in Public Health .

Littman was an adjunct assistant professor for disease prevention at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , where she researched, among other things, the educational needs of women regarding abortion .

Since 2018 Littman assistant professor at the School of Public Health of Brown University for the field of behavioral and social research. Her research interests include reproductive health , gender dysphoria , especially the iatrogenic , caused by treatment So, stop this dysphoria, Detransition , that is the undoing of gender transition , as well as premature births and the effects of substance abuse during pregnancy .

Littmann is a member of the American College of Preventive Medicine , a medical organization specializing in disease prevention.

Study on Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria and Subsequent Controversy

Study on Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria

Littman had noticed in her community that a growing number of teenagers were proclaiming transgender on social media at the same time as their friends. In a subsequent research, she was able to find that more and more parents reported in Internet forums that their teenage children began to identify themselves as transgender at the same time as their peers in their peer group or after increased Internet use, especially social media such as Tumblr and YouTube , even though they were in showed no signs of gender dysphoria in childhood. Such a sudden onset of gender identity disorder is inconsistent with previous research on transsexuality in adolescents, according to Littman. In addition, it is statistically unlikely that several people in a group of friends are transgender. To explore whether the sudden identification as transgender to " social contagion " ( " social contagion could go back"), let her parents, who recruited three relevant Internet forums, 90 questions about gender identity of their children, the use of social media, the Friends and answer previous mental disorders .

Littman was able to evaluate a total of 256 questionnaires, with over 82% of the transgender adolescents affected being born female . The average age of the adolescents was 16.4 years. It found that over 62% of teenagers were diagnosed with a mental disorder, such as depression , or a neurodevelopmental disorder such as autism before their gender dysphoria set in. In addition, more than 36% of young people in the Freundeskreis identified the majority of friends as transgender. Many parents participating in the study also complained about a deterioration in the parent-child relationship after the child came out as transgender, often because the child became increasingly isolated from the family . In addition, almost half of the adolescents only trusted information about gender dysphoria that came from sources that were aimed directly at trans people or were written by trans people; more than half distrusted information from doctors and psychologists.

Littman concluded that the numbers of transgender individuals in the circle of friends of those affected indicate that social contagion is partly responsible for the growing number of young people who identify themselves as transgender. This is comparable to the previously researched social contagion with regard to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa in adolescent peer groups. In addition, for many teens, gender transition appears to be a coping strategy for dealing with negative emotions , as can eating disorders, self-harm, and substance abuse, Littman said. According to Littman, the results of the study prove the phenomenon of sudden onset gender dysphoria , which deviates from the usual explanatory patterns for gender dysphoria in adolescents, for which she coined the term Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria ( ROGD ).

Published in 2017 Littman preliminary results of their study in a scholarly article entitled Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Young Adults: a Descriptive Study (German: Sudden attacks of gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: a descriptive study ) in the Journal of Adolescent Health . Final results published Littman in August 2018 as a Study of Parental reports (German: study parental reports ) in the scientific journal PLOS One .

Criticism and support of the study

Shortly after its publication, controversy arose over the essay. As early as February 2018, the LBGT- focused magazine The Advocate described Littman's study as “ biased junk science ”. A particular problem is that the parents who frequent the selected Internet forums turn to them because they do not accept the transgender identity of their child. In particular, the answers to the questions about the parent-child relationship before and after the gender transition could be influenced by the negative attitudes of the parents. It has already been proven that young people in their parents' homes who do not support their transition have more psychological problems and are therefore increasingly turning to their peer groups.

After the final results were published, other critical voices entered mainstream publications. An author of Slate magazine criticized, for example, that Littman does not show the difference to the long-recognized late -onset gender dysphoria . The study's most noticeable flaw is that Littman made no effort to speak to the adolescents and young adults themselves.

Above all, transgender activists like Julia Serano turned against the study and denied the existence of rapid-onset gender dysphoria . For Serano, the study is circular proof , as Littman only advertised the parent survey in parent forums where the thought was widespread that their children's transgender identification was only triggered by their social environment. Serano accuses Littman of having published the study at PLOS One , a science magazine that, according to Serano, examines the content of the articles less strictly because of the methodological deficiencies . The fact that young people increasingly identify with friends as transgender at the same time and / or spend a lot of time dealing with transsexuality on social media is just a correlation ; evidence of causality is still pending. Instead, from the perspective of a marginalized trans person, it makes sense to look for friends with similar experiences or to read about them online in order to find support that is often not available in everyday life. The increasing number of trans men is comparable to the increasing number of left-handers , who nowadays have less and less to hide their natural disposition.

However, many researchers also stood behind Littman's study and again questioned criticism of it. Psychologists Roberto D'Angelo and Lisa Marchiano stress that it is standard practice to both ask parents about their children and to poll an audience that deems the topic relevant. It is also typical to first observe correlations before a causality can be established; so it was also the case with other mental illnesses and problems such as bulimia and suicide before mimicking effects were identified as a possible cause. Serano's criticism would also not explain away the important observation that a large number of adolescents identified as transgender were previously diagnosed with a mental illness.

Ray Blanchard , who is best known in the research field for his typology of transsexuality, and J. Michael Bailey , who also received a lot of criticism from transgender circles for his popular science book The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism , support Littman's thesis on RODG and use it as a further explanatory model for transsexuality. They compare the current increase in transgender adolescents with the “ epidemics ” of cases of pseudo-memories of sexual abuse and of alleged multiple personality disorders in the 1990s, which also bear witness to social contagion and which also predominantly affected young women.

Academic Freedom Debate

In response to the criticism, the science magazine PLOS One announced on August 27, 2018 that it would re-examine the article in terms of methodology and analysis. On the same day, Brown University also issued a notice that it would remove the news of the publication of Littman's article from its website.

The actions of the magazine and the university sparked another debate about academic freedom . A petition with which the Brown University is asked to enter on the side Litt Mans for academic freedom, found more than 5,000 signatories. Former dean of Harvard Medical School Jeffrey Flier openly criticized Brown University in an article for Quillette magazine for failing to defend Littman against critics. According to him, the decision of the university and the magazine raise the question of the extent to which research on controversial topics is still possible.

The Brown University felt compelled to clarify that their response to concerns about academic standards, but not the suppression of academic freedom was motivated.

On March 19, 2019, PLOS One published the result of a subsequent review of the article, in which two publishers of scientific papers, a statistics expert and a researcher who investigated gender and gender deviations in adolescents had participated. The article, when examined, proved to be a legitimate contribution to scientific research in the field. In order to frame the results of the study more appropriately , minor changes were made to the title and abstract , among other things , which is why the article was republished . The language of the original article has been toned down (for example, the word “ outbreak” has been removed) and it has been clarified that ROGD has not yet been considered a clinically confirmed diagnosis . In a comment that was published with the new version of the article, the editor Angelo Brandelli Costa emphasized that Littman's study so far only provides indirect evidence that social media play a special role for young people in identifying as transgender. The editor-in-chief of the science magazine Joerg Heber also apologized to the transgender community and other affected persons for the errors in the original review of the article.

In an interview with Quillette after the article was republished, Littman described the critical, but also grateful, reactions she has received from various groups in different countries. She also revealed that her consultancy contract was not renewed after other employees filed a complaint about her controversial study and requested her termination, even though her work there was unrelated to the subject of the study.

Reception in German-speaking countries

In Germany, the theory of rapid-onset gender dysphoria has so far been discussed in an article in the Ärzte Zeitung in October 2018 and in an interview by the Spiegel with the child psychiatrist Alexander Korte. Korte reported "a [m] enormous inflow of youths who her sex , change ' want'; the rate of newcomers has "increased significantly", especially in the past five years. In his clinic in Munich, the “number of diagnoses ' gender dysphoria ' has quintupled since 2013”. He describes transsexuality as a "zeitgeist phenomenon" that is "currently very hyped", "especially on YouTube and Instagram ". He considers “imitation effects” to be “quite likely” and reports of four of his patients who “all come from the same small Bavarian town”, which contradicts “any statistical probability”.

Both texts met with criticism from the German transgender community.

proof

  1. ↑ a b c Littman, Lisa. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Littman, Lisa. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  3. ^ Lisa L Littman - Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. February 27, 2015, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Lisa L. Littman, Adam Jacobs, Rennie Negron, Tara Shochet, Marji Gold, Miriam Cremer: Beliefs about abortion risks in women returning to the clinic after their abortions: a pilot study. In: Contraception. July 2014, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Ellen R. Wiebe, Lisa Littman, Janusz Kaczorowski, Erin L. Moshier: Misperceptions About the Risks of Abortion in Women Presenting for Abortion. In: Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada. March 2014, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  6. ^ Lisa Littman - American College of Preventive Medicine. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b c An Interview With Lisa Littman, Who Coined the Term 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria'. In: Quillette. March 19, 2019, accessed March 20, 2019 (Australian English).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lisa Littman: Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports . In: PLOS ONE . tape 13 , no. 8 , August 16, 2018, ISSN  1932-6203 , p. e0202330 , doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0202330 , PMID 30114286 , PMC 6095578 (free full text) - ( plos.org [accessed March 8, 2019]).
  9. ^ Lisa L. Littman: Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Young Adults: a Descriptive Study . In: Journal of Adolescent Health . tape 60 , no. 2 , February 1, 2017, ISSN  1054-139X , p. S95 – S96 , doi : 10.1016 / j.jadohealth.2016.10.369 ( jahonline.org [accessed March 8, 2019]).
  10. ↑ a b c d 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' Is Biased Junk Science. February 20, 2018, accessed March 8, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b Alex Barasch: Critics of a Badly Designed Study on “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” Are Being Accused of Censorship. But Scrutiny Is Just Good Science. August 30, 2018, accessed March 8, 2019 .
  12. ↑ a b c d e Julia Serano: Everything You Need to Know About Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria. In: Medium. August 22, 2018, accessed March 8, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Meredith Wadman: New paper ignites storm over whether teens experience 'rapid onset' of transgender identity. August 29, 2018, accessed March 8, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Zinnia Jones: Fresh trans myths of 2017: "rapid onset gender dysphoria". In: Gender Analysis. July 1, 2017, Retrieved March 18, 2019 (American English).
  15. ^ Zinnia Jones: "Rapid onset gender dysphoria": What a hoax diagnosis looks like. In: Gender Analysis. February 1, 2018, Retrieved March 18, 2019 (American English).
  16. ↑ a b c Response to Julia Serano's critique of Lisa Littman's paper: Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Study of Parental Reports. In: gdworkinggroup.org. August 27, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2019 (American English).
  17. ↑ a b 4thwavenow: Gender dysphoria is not one thing. In: 4thWaveNow. December 7, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2019 (American English).
  18. ↑ Why the surge in gender dysphoria among teenage girls? ( theglobeandmail.com [accessed March 18, 2019]).
  19. ↑ Lisa Littman: Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports . In: PLOS ONE . tape 13 , no. 8 , August 16, 2018, ISSN  1932-6203 , p. e0202330 , doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0202330 ( plos.org [accessed March 8, 2019]).
  20. ↑ a b August 27, 2018 Media contact: News Staff 401-863-2476: Brown statement on gender dysphoria study. Retrieved March 8, 2019 .
  21. ^ Author Alison McCook: Reader outcry prompts Brown to retract press release on trans teens. In: Retraction Watch. August 29, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2019 (American English).
  22. ↑ Olivia Rudgard: Brown University in row with transgender activists over claims gender dysphoria spreading among children . In: The Telegraph . August 28, 2018, ISSN  0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed March 8, 2019]).
  23. ↑ Marc Neumann: When it comes to transgender people, the fuses reliably blow | NZZ . September 13, 2018, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed March 8, 2019]).
  24. ↑ Rapid-onset Gender Dysphoria and Squelching Controversial Evidence. Retrieved March 8, 2019 (American English).
  25. ^ A b As a Former Dean of Harvard Medical School, I Question Brown's Failure to Defend Lisa Littman. In: Quillette. August 31, 2018, Retrieved March 8, 2019 (Australian English).
  26. ↑ a b c d Joerg Heber: Correcting the scientific record on gender incongruence - and an apology | EveryONE: The PLOS ONE blog. In: EveryONE. March 19, 2019, Retrieved March 20, 2019 (American English).
  27. ^ News Staff Brown University: Updated: Brown statements on gender dysphoria study. March 19, 2019, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Lisa Littman: Correction: Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria . In: PLOS ONE . tape 14 , no. 3 , March 19, 2019, ISSN  1932-6203 , p. e0214157 , doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0214157 ( plos.org [accessed March 20, 2019]).
  29. ↑ Tom Bartlett: Journal Issues Revised Version of Controversial Paper That Questioned Why Some Teens Identify as Transgender . In: The Chronicle of Higher Education . March 19, 2019, ISSN  0009-5982 ( chronicle.com [accessed March 20, 2019]).
  30. ↑ Angelo Brandelli Costa: Formal comment on: Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria . In: PLOS ONE . tape 14 , no. 3 , March 19, 2019, ISSN  1932-6203 , p. e0212578 , doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0212578 ( plos.org [accessed March 20, 2019]).
  31. ↑ PLOS ONE: We want to extend our apologies to the trans and gender variant community and others affected by the shortcomings of the initial review. PLOS is an inclusive, open and non-discriminatory publisher that deeply cares for the concerns of this community. In: @PLOSONE. March 19, 2019, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Nicola Zink: Born in the wrong body: Is it now the fashion to be transgender? In: Doctors newspaper . October 16, 2018, p. 2 .
  33. ↑ a b c d e Barbara Hardinghaus, Maik Großekathöfer: Transgender: SPIEGEL conversation with child psychiatrist Alexander Korte about the trend to adopt another gender . In: Spiegel . No. 4/2019 , January 19, 2019.
  34. ↑ Hanna Zobel: The Ärztezeitung asks whether trans * is a fashion. And people ask if the medical paper is crazy. In: Bento. October 19, 2018, accessed March 8, 2019 .
  35. ↑ German Society for Transidentity and Intersexuality eV: Statement on "Born in the wrong body: Is it now fashion to be transgender?" (PDF) In: dgti.org. October 23, 2018, accessed March 8, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Littman, Lisa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Littman, Lisa L.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American doctor, researcher and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century