David Oliver Cauldwell

David Oliver Cauldwell (June 17, 1897 – August 30, 1959) was a prolific and pioneering sexologist, who has been claimed to have coined the term “transsexual”[1][2] (though there is a prior claim for Hirschfeld[3]), and many of whose monographs on sex, psychology, or health were published by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius in such forms as Big Blue Books.

Cauldwell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a surgeon. Cauldwell reports himself as from childhood having had a special interest in sexual anatomy. He studied medicine at the Chester College of Medicine and Surgery (later merged with Loyola University Chicago) and at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. After several years as a private general practitioner, Cauldwell became an Associate Medical Officer of the Department of War, and as a contract surgeon for the Army, and became a neuro-psychiatrist for the Department of War. In 1945, Cauldwell ended active practice to become a writer on topics of health, notably sexology.

Contents

Cauldwell and transsexualism

Although the German term “Transsexualismus” was introduced by Hirschfeld in 1923,[3] Cauldwell appears to be the first to use the term in direct reference to those who desired a change of physiological sex.[4]

Cauldwell distinguished “biological sex” from “psychological sex”, and saw the latter as determined by social conditioning. He denied that there were modes of thinking intrinsically linked to male or female biology. Primarily because of this view of gender as plastic, and secondarily because of the limitations of medical science, he regarded sex reassignment surgery as an unacceptable response to transsexualism, and instead advocated that it be treated as a mental disorder (though he advocated acceptance of homosexualism and of transvestism).[4]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ anonymous. “Editorial”, The International Journal of Transgenderism v5 (2001) #2 (April-June).
  2. ^ Ekins, Richard; and Dave King. “Pioneers of Transgendering: The Popular Sexology of David O. Cauldwell”, The International Journal of Transgenderism v5 (2001) #2 (April-June).
  3. ^ a b Hirschfeld, Magnus; “Die intersexuelle Konstitution” in Jarhbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen 1923.
  4. ^ a b Meyerowitz, Joanne Jay; How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States.

See also

Works

[The titles of the Haldeman-Julius publications were chosen by or at the insistence of Haldeman-Julius, to provoke sales.]

Haldeman-Julius Little Blue Book

Haldeman-Julius Big Blue Books

Other

External links