Psychological Perspectives

A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/upyp20

Defacing Dionysus: The Fabrication of an Anti-

Transgender Myth

Nicholas S. Literski

To cite this article: Nicholas S. Literski (2021) Defacing Dionysus: The Fabrication
of an Anti-Transgender Myth, Psychological Perspectives, 64:3, 360-368, DOI:
10.1080/00332925.2021.1996137

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00332925.2021.1996137

Published online: 07 Mar 2022.

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Psychological Perspectives, 64: 360–368, 2021
# C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles
ISSN: 0033-2925 print / 1556-3030 online
DOI: 10.1080/00332925.2021.1996137

Defacing Dionysus: The Fabrication of an

Anti-Transgender Myth

Nicholas S. Literski

Dr. Lisa Marchiano, in her article, “Transgender Children: The Making of a Modern
Hysteria,” resurrects an archaic and misogynistic label in order to invalidate the
experience of transgender young persons. Marchiano’s article represents a long his-
tory of anti-transgender activism, including the promotion of an unfounded pseudo-
diagnosis that has been rejected by both medical and mental health professionals.
Rather than dismissing transgender identities as a media-influenced delusion,
Jungian theory provides a unique opportunity to understand the transgender experi-
ence through a focus on powerful mythic and archetypal themes.

n his masterful work on sexual diversity among indigenous American tribes, Walter
I L. Williams (1986) described centuries-old traditions of initiation for young people
whose behavior expressed an identity incongruent with their biological sex. In each
case, prepubescent children were provided with a culturally sanctioned ritual method
of expressing their own sense of gender before being honored and initiated into their
chosen role. The mythologies of such cultures not only embraced the inherent right of
an individual to determine their gender identity, but warned of dire consequences for
anyone who might attempt to infringe on that right. Sadly, those stories offered limited
protection. European missionaries and colonists, upon encountering indigenous two-
spirit persons in North America, imposed the derogatory label of berdache (i.e., sodom-
ite) upon them and engaged in a campaign of extermination (Williams, 1986).
The success of this vicious pogrom has enabled modern writers such as Dr. Lisa
Marchiano (2022), who now claims that “the notion of being transgender could not
exist without doctors” and that “transgender was not a category one could imagine for
oneself until medical and surgical advances created transition” (p. 353). While such
inaccurate claims might be expected from those who disregard history and mythology,
they are troubling when employed by a scholar who invokes the legacy of C. G. Jung in
order to invalidate transgender youth.
In one sense, Marchiano is correct that the word transgender did not come into
broad usage until the early 1990s (Stryker, 2006). Beyond mere semantics, however,
the concept of shifting or nonconforming gender identity has appeared within world
mythology for millennia. As early as the first century, Kwan Yin appeared as a mythic
bodhisattva/goddess, yet her original identity was Avalokitesvara, a male aspirant
(Bailey, 2008). Before a word for “gender” existed in Latin, Ovid (as cited in
Mandelbaum, 2017) wrote of Tiresias, who was transformed from a man to a woman,
 NICHOLAS S. LITERSKI 䉬 DEFACING DIONYSUS 361

Unknown artist, Bacchus, Roman (after Hellenistic model of Dionysus), marble, 2nd century AD. Photo
# Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 2.5.
362 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES 䉬 VOLUME 64, ISSUE 3 / 2021

and later back to a man. As I have written elsewhere (Literski, 2021), Dionysus
received considerable attention for his gender nonconforming physicality.
Marchiano (2022) characterizes the phenomenon of young persons coming out as
transgender as a “modern hysteria,” reminiscent of her earlier article in Psychological
Perspectives, which used the equally sensational terms “outbreak” and “psychic epi-
demic” (Marchiano, 2017). While such framing may be useful for creating dramatic
effect, the term hysteria has long (and wisely) been consigned to the linguistic trash
heap, recognized for its deeply misogynistic overtones (Illis, 2002).
The use of such inflammatory language in relation to transgender young persons
is representative of Marchiano’s five-year record as an anti-transgender activist. As
early as August of 2016, Marchiano wrote that medical transition “subvert[s] the deep
wisdom of the instinctual Ereshkigal part of our psyches and is evidence of just how
divorced we are from those instincts” and is “an act of violence against our very nature”
(Marchiano, 2016, para. 17).
Around 2017, Marchiano’s attention turned to transgender youth in particular. In
an interview with the online magazine Feminist Current, Marchiano suggested that
parents have a duty to disregard a transgender young person’s coming out just as they
would dismiss a teenager’s desperate plea for a new iPhone. “I know kids who’ve lived
as cats for months at a time,” Marchiano claimed, “but it would be ludicrous to take
them at their word and tell them that yes, they are in fact a cat” (Marchiano cited in
Murphy, 2017, para. 11). Marchiano escalated her crusade at 4thWaveNow, an online
“gender critical” community, by discouraging parents from allowing young transgender
persons to medically or socially transition (Marchiano, 2017).
This pattern of activism continues via Marchiano’s (2022) chosen terminology
within her most recent article, “Transgender Children: The Making of a Modern
Hysteria.” Marchiano referred, for example, to “epidemics of psychogenic diseases,”
including so-called “transgenderism” (2022, p. 349, emphasis added). The Gay and
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD, 2021) media guide spells out how
“transgenderism” is “not a term commonly used by transgender people. This is a term
used by anti-transgender activists to dehumanize transgender people and reduce who
they are to ‘a condition’” (para. 24).
While “transgenderism” does appear in some non-trans-antagonistic sources,
Marchiano’s usage is punctuated with a plethora of peculiar images. Throughout her
article, Marchiano equates the status of being transgender with anorexia nervosa,
satanic ritual abuse, and unidentified flying objects. She writes that the sense of being
born in the wrong body (an experience that not all transgender persons share) is a
“seemingly fantastical idea” (p. 4). Marciano frames transgender experience as an
“exotic new condition” (p. 12). She paints a world in which hordes of teenagers are
facilely receiving gender confirmation surgery, despite the fact that such procedures
are not generally provided for minors.
These heavily loaded words and images seem intentional, carefully chosen to lead
the reader toward a destination where transgender youth are both trivialized and
pathologized. The comparison with anorexia nervosa is particularly concerning. Noting
research indicating that anorexia may, in some cases, arise via social contagion,
Marchiano infers that the advent of young people identifying as transgender is similarly
driven by peer interactions. Even if this speculation were correct, however, the com-
parison falters. Surely no responsible practitioner would advocate against the availabil-
ity of a full range of options for treating anorexia, to be administered with the
assistance of competent physicians and mental health experts. Marchiano, however,
 NICHOLAS S. LITERSKI 䉬 DEFACING DIONYSUS 363

declines to extend her comparison to this practical reality. Rather than encourage
broader options for assisting transgender youth—not all of whom seek to socially or
medically transition—Marchiano urges both parents and professionals to disincentivize
what she deprecates as maladaptive behavior.
This “disincentivizing agenda” is perhaps an expected outcome of Marchiano’s the-
ory of how young people identify as transgender. In 2017, Psychological Perspectives
published “Outbreak: On Transgender Teens and Psychic Epidemics” (Marchiano, 2017).
In this article, Marchiano introduced “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD), a non-
scientific pseudo-diagnosis based on reports of non-affirming parents who found them-
selves shocked when their children “suddenly” came out as transgender. Soon after,
Marchiano assisted in the preparation of a related article by Dr. Lisa Littman (2018),
which received extensive criticism for its methodology, including the fact that the alleged
“rapid onsets” of transgender identity were measured solely from parental reports, most
of which were recruited via trans-antagonistic websites (Farley & Kennedy, 2020).
In support of this image of ROGD, Marchiano extensively described how young
persons who come out as transgender have often associated with other transgender
persons, researched transgender identity and resources online, etc. From the perspec-
tive of Marchiano and the numerous non-affirming parents she worked with, these fac-
tors specifically caused teens to adopt a “trendy” transgender identity. Alternatives,
such as the strong possibility that a transgender young person might have reached out
for support and information long before gathering the courage to come out to poten-
tially unsupportive parents, were seemingly excluded from Marchiano’s theory.
In her current article, Marchiano (2022, this issue) continues the narrative that
young people are being “turned transgender” by YouTube, social media, and “glowing
media reports about brave trans kids” (p. 356). As such, she calls for analysts, parents,
and society to “interrupt the feedback loop that is encouraging thousands of young peo-
ple” to seek transition (2022, this issue, p. 357). While transgender and gender noncon-
forming persons are indeed receiving increased favorable media attention (Literski,
2021), Marchiano ignores the competing messages confronting transgender youth. In
2021, a record number of 110 proposed laws were introduced in various state legislatures
to limit sports participation, facility access, and medical treatment for transgender per-
sons, particularly youths (Levin, 2021). Murders of transgender persons, mostly trans-
gender women of color, have increased beyond previously tracked years (Yurcaba, 2021).
As noted by UC Berkeley professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, Eric Stanley, trans-
gender persons “are positioned in relation to the normative culture that is both fascinated
and repelled by us. It’s not usually, ‘I hate you, get away.’ It’s more often, ‘I hate you.
Come really close so I can terrorize you’” (Natividad, 2021, para. 3).
The Trevor Project (2021) recently surveyed nearly 35,000 LGBTQ young per-
sons between the ages of 13 and 24 from throughout the United States. Their findings
reveal significant challenges facing transgender youth: 48% of respondents stated that
they desired help from a mental health professional but were “unable to receive it in
the past year” (para. 8); 75% of respondents indicated that they had been subjected to
discrimination based on their LGBTQ status. The survey further found that only 33% of
transgender and nonbinary youth were affirmed in their gender at home, and only 47%
were thus affirmed at school. Affirmation by family members, including the use of cor-
rect pronouns, as well as the ability to change name and/or gender markers on legal
identification, was correlated with lower rates of attempted suicide.
While statistics such as these demonstrate the actual conditions under which
young people in the United States come out as transgender, Marchiano (2022) delivers
364 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES 䉬 VOLUME 64, ISSUE 3 / 2021

an image of young people as susceptible, otherwise cisgender victims of trans-affirming

multimedia. In point of fact, Marchiano goes so far as to suggest that transgender status
should not be recognized at all, given the lack of objective scientific testing, such as
blood tests or x-rays, to prove such a thing exists. Notably, these are the exact tactics
once used by activists to (a) claim that gay men were “recruiting” innocent youth; and
(b) that homosexuality was a disordered behavioral choice rather than a genuine
human sexual orientation. The fact that Marchiano recycles these historic scaremonger
tactics should be alarming to professionals of all kinds who work with transgender-
identified young people.
Marchiano’s invalidation of transgender identity as a misguided social contagion
is an integral component of the ROGD pseudo-diagnosis she has promoted since at least
2017. As Florence Ashley (2020), a specialist in transgender law and bioethics, has
noted, ROGD “reflects a deliberate attempt to weaponize scientific-sounding language
to dismiss mounting empirical evidence of the benefits of transition for youth” (p. 779).
Other scholars have previously produced thorough analyses exposing the shortcomings
and misuses of ROGD (Ashley, 2020; Farley & Kennedy, 2020). The World Professional
Association For Transgender Health (WPATH, 2018) likewise issued a position state-
ment declaring that ROGD “is not a medical entity recognized by any major professional
association” and that “it is both premature and inappropriate to employ official-
sounding labels that lead clinicians, community members, and scientists to form abso-
lute conclusions about adolescent gender identity development” (paras. 1–2).
Marchiano and other anti-transgender activists repeatedly insist that young
persons are incapable of comprehending their own gender identity, while at the same
time attributing quasi-professional diagnostic abilities to non-affirming (and only
non-affirming) parents. There is something inherently troubling about invalidating a
young person’s internal sense of gender identity, given that research shows children
develop an understanding of their own and others’ gender by around the age of two
years (Martin & Ruble, 2010). In an apparent effort to discourage parents from support-
ing their transgender children, Marchiano (2022) criticizes mothers who advocate for
their transgender children, inventing a narrative that trans-affirming parents are
unwise, unreasonable, or unloving.
Marchiano’s (2022) call for a curious, symbolic, and psychoanalytic (but notably
not affirming) approach to the phenomenon of young people coming out as transgender
necessarily invites a response that respects the depth psychological legacy of C. G.
Jung and later Jungians. Lisa Farley and R.M. Kennedy (2020) suggested that the
pseudo-diagnosis of ROGD “says less about the experiences of young people and more
about the concerns of adults regarding the fraught meanings of gender, language, free-
dom, and truth itself” (p. 158). Indeed, the strongly emotional incongruities displayed
by anti-transgender activists indicate the presence of individual or cultural complexes.
As Thomas Singer (2006) explained, cultural complexes “function in an involuntary,
autonomous fashion and tend to affirm a simplistic point of view that replaces everyday
ambiguity with fixed, often self-righteous attitudes to the world” (p. 203).
Psychoanalysts are vividly aware that both personal and cultural complexes sur-
round an archetypal core. It is noteworthy that Marchiano’s gender-related interviews
and writings center almost exclusively on young people who were assigned female at
birth, objecting strongly to the potential impact that medical transition has on female
fertility and childbearing (Marchiano, 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2022). Marchiano (2020)
works with women who formerly transitioned to a male or nonbinary identity, but later
regretted that decision (comprising roughly two percent of all persons who transition).
 NICHOLAS S. LITERSKI 䉬 DEFACING DIONYSUS 365

Such a specific focus on how transition affects female reproductive potential is

extremely common among those who oppose transgender-affirming care for young
persons (4thWaveNow, 2021), and suggests a vigorous activation of the
Mother archetype.
The likelihood of transgender persons triggering cultural complexes has been
well established. In 1950, Swiss psychiatrist Medard Boss gave a presentation to
the 66th Congress of South-West German Psychiatrists and Neurologists detailing
his work with a transgender woman who ultimately received gender confirmation
surgery (Nieder & Strauss, 2015). After 50 hours of clinical work, Boss became
convinced that his client’s gender identification was valid and not the result of
underlying psychodynamic disorders. Accordingly, Boss appears to have become
the first mental health provider in post-World War II Germany to recommend gen-
der confirmation surgery, including orchiectomy, penectomy, and vaginoplasty.
In a time when gender confirmation surgery was rarely heard of, Boss’ report pro-
voked substantial outcry, with a number of professionals opining over the ethical issues
raised. Jung (1950/1989) entered the fray, writing a brief piece reflecting his thoughts
on the matter. Interestingly, Jung had no objections to the procedure itself, considering
it a matter of judgment between patient and physician. Instead, Jung focused his con-
cerns on Boss’ decision to make such a controversial case public. Commenting on Boss’
choice to publicize the procedure, Jung wrote:

Moreover, the operation affects an organ that is the object of a collective

taboo; that is to say, castration is a numinous mutilation which makes a
powerful impression on everyone and is consequently hedged about with all
sorts of emotional considerations. A doctor who risks this intervention should
not be surprised if there is a collective reaction against it. He may be justified
before his own conscience, but he risks his reputation by violating a collective
feeling. (p. 348)

Jung’s criticism was clearly contextual in terms of time, place, and culture; yet he
described an activation of cultural complexes that continue to arise today, even after
major medical and mental health organizations have expressed overwhelming support
for gender-affirming treatment.
Jung’s characterization of gender confirmation surgery as numinous is particu-
larly striking, given that phallus worship goes back several millennia (Scott, 1966), and
veneration of the female generative organs reaches back to Paleolithic times (Le
Guillou, 2001). This is still echoed today, when anti-transgender attitudes commonly
persist among religious conservatives (Smith, 2017). Jung’s (1961) extensive study of
history and mythology allowed him to recognize how gender transition challenged col-
lective and seemingly stable images of divine creative (procreative!) power.
As society’s awareness of gender identity has increased, more recent Jungian ana-
lysts and scholars have adopted a broader view of such complexes. Analyst Patricia
Berry (2008), for example, pointed out that humans construct hard, non-negotiable
gender dichotomies in order to avoid feelings of inferiority, even while remaining pri-
vately enthralled by the violation of such markers. Bradley A. TePaske (2017), an ana-
lyst and religious historian, wrote that our

everyday reactions to the mysterious ambiguity of transgender persons begs

attention … a complex may be struck that can resonate all the way back …
366 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES 䉬 VOLUME 64, ISSUE 3 / 2021

through everything that a person brings with him or her intrapsychically to

the present moment. This could be a shiver of revulsion, a blur of dissociative
recall, a perplexing fascination, or again a simple delight at the novel and
audacious variations of the human being. (p. 326)

For modern Jungians, psychopathology is not to be situated in the transgender

experience itself, but rather in reactive cultural responses to it.
In my own work (Literski, 2021), I have pointed to the same “revulsion vs.
attraction” dynamic that these other Jungians have observed. Drawing a parallel with
the appearance of Dionysus before the King of Thebes, I have referred to this contra-
dictory pattern as the “Pentheus complex.” In today’s terminology, Dionysus could eas-
ily be identified as nonbinary or gender nonconforming. After all, the god was referred
to by epithets such as “the man without true virility,” “the womanish,” “the
man-womanly,” and even “the hybrid” in a hermaphroditic sense (Kerenyi, 1980, p.
273), all the while flaunting cultural expectations with respect to gender expression.
The villain of The Bacchae (Woodruff, 407 B.C.E./1999), however, is not the gender
nonconforming Dionysus, but rather King Pentheus, whose reaction to Dionysus com-
bines both scorn and obvious arousal.
Pentheus’ strange reaction was directly related to the anxiety of maintaining
established cultural gender roles. As Martha Nussbaum (1990) wrote:

He mocks the soft, sinuous, feminine form of Dionysus; his long curls, “full of
desire,” his untanned skin, suggestive of the indoor world of women, his
womanly form. For this aspect of the god threatens the hard boundaries
between categories upon which Pentheus insists. But he himself is drawn in
complex ways to that womanly condition—both sexually attracted (“you’re
not impossible to look at”) and drawn through identification and longing. He
desires the condition of womanly passivity, even while he scorns it. He desires
the dissolution of boundaries, even while he insists on them most firmly. (pp.
xxxvii–xxxviii)

The complex experienced by Pentheus continues to be activated even today, as

pornography portraying transgender persons increases in popularity, particularly in
religiously conservative parts of the United States (Herman, 2015).
Scholars should consider carefully the validity of Marchiano’s (2022) arguments
and allegations. Perhaps even more importantly, scholars should also read Marchiano’s
article in light of the psychodynamic forces it enacts. Significant cultural complexes
persist despite recent progress in supportive and scientifically based treatment options
for transgender young persons. Exploration and analysis too may indeed help a young
person better understand their own psyche, perhaps even providing them with useful
tools to better comprehend their own gender journey. As professionals in positions of
privilege and power, however, Jungian analysts and scholars should take special care to
approach the psyche as it manifests within transgender persons by maintaining genuine
respect for its relational, numinous, and embodied reality.

Nicholas S. Literski, PhD, (they/them) is an adjunct lecturer in psychology at

the California Institute of Integral Studies. Nick is a doctoral candidate in depth
psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, holding master’s degrees in both
 NICHOLAS S. LITERSKI 䉬 DEFACING DIONYSUS 367

spiritual guidance and depth psychology. Their published works include

“Declining Divisions: Non-Binary Gender Identities and American Cultural
Consciousness” in T. Singer & A. Samuels (Eds.) The Reality of Fragmentation
and the Yearning for Healing: Jungian Perspectives on Democracy, Power, and
Illusion in Contemporary Politics; “Dionysus Reviled: Transgender Visibility and
the Pentheus Complex” in Immanence Journal; and “Engaging the Paleolithic
Images of Chauvet Cave” in Psychological Perspectives. Their research interests
include depth psychological reflections on spirituality, sexual orientation, and
gender identity. Nick provides professional spiritual guidance coaching, classes,
and workshops through www.dancingancestors.com.

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