How Cis?: Examining Transphobic Countertransference in Therapeutic Work
ET
Presented by Tobias Wiggins, PhD
Program Description:
In the wake of incessant anti-trans rhetoric, moral panic, a flood of global transphobic legislation, and continual threats to trans life-chances, many health practitioners are facing a crossroads regarding trans care. While some have chosen to integrate or maintain ethically engaged approaches, much of this work has overlooked a key therapeutic dynamic: that is, the various ways that transphobic countertransference (TCT) may find its way into the consulting room. Building upon Hansbury’s foundational analysis of unthinkable anxieties in a century of psychoanalytic writing, Dr. Wiggins will begin by exploring how clinicians’ unacknowledged gendered investments, fantasies, and defensive structures manifest in therapeutic settings, often despite conscious commitments to competence or affirmation. Drawing on classical psychoanalytic frameworks, Dr. Wiggins will trace the theoretical history of countertransference, highlighting the key contentions surrounding its applications and the multiple, often conflated interpretations of its utility. By clarifying how countertransference has been understood—as obstacle, as diagnostic tool, and as intersubjective cocreation— and emphasizing its gendered dimensions, this session sets the stage for a more nuanced understanding of how clinicians may encounter, enact, and work through or with transphobic countertransference. From there, he will investigate three distinct forms of TCT: psychotic (rooted in preverbal anxieties and dysregulation), perverse (relating to internalized law and omnipotence), and neurotic (shaped by the therapist’s gendered histories and social learning). In a moment when trans lives are under a deplorable siege, the analyst’s couch is not exempt from forces that threaten trans survival. Although TCT often emerges without any overt hostility, asking “how cis?” invites clinicians into the textures of their own gendered subjectivity, while offering a critical lens through which to challenge the epistemic authority of cisness within the mental health professions.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Tobias Wiggins (he/him) is an associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Athabasca University (AU) currently living in Treaty 7, Mohkinstsis (MOH-kin-stiss), colonially known as Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. His research specializations include transgender mental health and sexuality, psychoanalysis, research-creation, queer visual culture, and cisgender psychology. Broadly, Wiggins’ work aims to address the continued pathologization of gender diversity and advocate for trans-competent care. He is the director of the TransLab, an interdisciplinary research hub that supports the production and dissemination of qualitative, theoretical, and arts-based research in Transgender Studies. At AU, he coordinates the University Certificate in Gender & Social Justice Counselling, which applies intersectional feminist and social justice theory to a wide variety of helping professions. Dr. Wiggins’ recent scholarly outputs include contributions to anthologies like The Queerness of Psychoanalysis (2024), Gender Affirming Psychiatric Care (2023), Sex, Sexuality and Trans Identities (2020); journals including Studies in Gender and Sexuality (2022), The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (2021), and Transgender Studies Quarterly (2020); as well as community-based publication projects and digital storytelling.
This event is free of charge, but registration is required by September 10.