Introduction

(a) The sense of gender identity

What is the ‘self’? Like the word ‘emo tion’, the word encompa sses a number of mental attributes that are lumped together as a convenient linguistic shorthand. These different attributes of self would include: (i) the sen se o f co nti nuit y in spa ce and tim e; (ii ) the s ens e of ag enc y and f ree wil l; (iii) unity or the sen se of being a singl e person in spit e of a diversity of thoughts and sensory impressions; (iv) the sense of embodim ent or of being ancho red in one’s body , whic h inclu des one’ s ‘body image ’— a vivid sense of the diffe rent parts of your body; (v) the so cial d ime nsions o f self-i nclud ing how ‘o thers vi ew me ’, which allows one to be ‘self-conscious’; (vi) and most enigm atic ally of all, the sense of ‘self awaren ess’, the fact that the self is aware of itself. These different aspects of self are, to use Dennett’s (2003) analogy , like different vectors intersecting at a single point (or hazy blob) that we ca ll t he se lf . Br ai n di se a se c an se pa ra te ou t so m e , if no t a ll , of th es e different elements, indicating they are probably mediated by different brain mechanisms. One of us (Ramachandran, 2007) has suggested elsewhere that the final two aspects in this list (seeing yourself as others see you and ‘self awareness’) probably co-evolved in primate evo lut ion and hav e now bec ome clo sel y int ert wi ned . Thi s wou ld explain why we use the phrase ‘self-conscious’, when we really mean bein g consc ious of others being conscio us of us. This paper is concerned with one of the most poorly understood aspects of the self; one’s internal sense of gender identity

1

and sexual b ody im ag e th at goe s wi th it . W e be li ev e we ha ve fou nd ev id en ce th at , paradoxically, whilst one’s gender identity and internal body image

2

are usually perfectly synchronised with one’s external physical gender, the two de velop t hrough di ffere nt biolo gical mec hanism s, proba bly

in utero

. It is an uncoupling of this development which causes some individuals to become transsexuals. We hasten to add here, that trans - sexual people should not be viewed as abnormal, any more than one

6 V . S . R A M A C H A N D R A N A N D P . D . M C G E O C H

[1]

We ar e aw ar e th at so me wr it ers us e th e wo rd ge nd er to im pl y a pur el y so ci al ly co ns tr uc te d concept. This is not how we wish to use the word.

[2]

We us e th e te rm ‘b od y im ag e ’ to de no te a hi gh er -l ev el re pr es en ta ti on in th e br ai n th an th e somato sensor y map in the parieta l lobes (Critchle y, 1953). Howeve r, as our results sug- gest, the two conce pts are doubtle ss intimately linked.