Becoming Trans: A Constructivist Analysis

Abstract This paper offers an analysis of the trans phenomenon from a constructivist psychological perspective that articulates the organic, operative, and social dimensions of a human subject. It emphasizes the developmental process through which a subject—through trial and error, conflicts, and decisions—elaborates and adopts a trans identity as a solution to a problem in living, under specific conditions of social and institutional influence or mediation. The paper critiques both the explanation based on the “discovery” of an intrinsic or innate identity and that of “contamination” or mere social influence, and it highlights the conceptual shortcomings of the queer antinormative discourse regarding sex, will, the function of norms, and normative progress. It examines the performative effects of this social influence in Spain under the Trans Law and its affirmative approach, which accelerates decisions with irreversible consequences while simultaneously restricting the very plural and rational social influence upon which a subject’s life decisions and normative progress depend.