Social representations of psychology professionals about trans people in the city of Salta, Argentina

Abstract

This research investigates social representations
constructed by psychology professionals about
trans people in Salta city, Argentina. From a
qualitative approach, with a descriptive design,
20 semi-directed interviews were conducted to
psychologists in the city. The construction and
analysis of the data were based on grounded
theory. Among the most significant findings, it is
recognized that professionals in psychology have
cisgender and heteronormative understanding
frameworks to apprehend trans trajectories. Trans
people become pathologized from discourses
that point them out as abnormal, “weird”, and
different. Gender identity appears as a construct
concerning only to trans identities, with reference
to the collective´s struggle for full citizenship.
The representations about trans people include
images of a spectacularized body, an object body
that degrades its condition of sociability and
is constitutively marked by violence. Violence
appears as a condition of possibility for these
people, and their rights are violated by the public
manifestation of their gender identity. However,
in this subversion and insurrection against the
hetero-cis norm regulating identities, they possess
great power of transformation and resistance.
The results of this study are intended to be
useful for future interventions in the population
of psychologists in the city of Salta and, thus,
contribute to dismantle mechanisms of inequality
and exclusion towards trans people.