Perilous crossings

ABSTRACT The author argues for an understanding of subjective gender whereby under dichotomous gender conventions people espouse multiple, complex, chaotic, and mutually exclusive feelings, ideas, and actions. Like sexuality, gender is a fluid, ambiguous and contextual aspect of identity. She critiques theory that puts forth a stage related, linear, content-based construction of gender and describes how attachment theory and intersubjectivity can contribute to newer gender theory. Case material is provided to illustrate the intersubjective nature of gender in the analytic process.