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David Pilgrim vs. transgender people

David Pilgrim is a British psychologist and anti-transgender activist. Pilgrim and colleague Lucy Johnstone are associated with anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM). SEGM announced that Pilgrim would be speaking on “A Critical Realist Look at ‘Gender Healthcare.’”

Background

Pilgrim is known for developing an alternative to disease models called the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF). Pilgrim developed this model with Mary Boyle, John Cromby, David Harper, Peter Kinderman, Lucy Johnstone, and John Read. As Jaime Hoerricks summarizes:

The origins of the PTMF can be traced to a growing dissatisfaction with conventional psychiatric models. Spearheaded by a team of psychologists, service users, and researchers led by Dr Lucy Johnstone and Professor Mary Boyle, the framework was published by the British Psychological Society in 2018. It emerged from decades of research and clinical experience, drawing on diverse fields including trauma studies, social justice, and critical psychology. The PTMF was developed in response to mounting evidence that traditional diagnostic approaches often fail to adequately capture the complexity of human experiences and can sometimes be actively harmful, particularly for marginalised groups.

At the heart of the PTMF are four key interrelated concepts: Power, Threat, Meaning, and Response. ‘Power’ refers to the various ways in which power operates in our lives, from obvious forms like physical force to more subtle influences like societal norms and expectations. ‘Threat’ encompasses the negative impacts of power misuse, including various forms of adversity, trauma, and social inequalities. ‘Meaning’ relates to how we interpret and make sense of our experiences, shaped by our personal narratives, cultural beliefs, and social contexts. Finally, ‘Response’ describes the ways we react to threat, which can manifest as various forms of distress, unusual experiences, or behaviours that are often labelled as ‘symptoms’ in traditional models.

References

Hoerricks, Jaime (June 29, 2024). Beyond Barriers: Applying the Social Model and PTMF to Trans Autistic Experiences. The AutSide https://autside.substack.com/p/beyond-barriers-applying-the-socialSelected publications

Selected anti-trans writing by Pilgrim

Pilgrim, D. (2021). Transgender debates and healthcare: A critical realist account. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 26(5), 535–553. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593211046840

Pilgrim, D. (2018). Reclaiming reality and redefining realism: the challenging case of transgenderism. Journal of Critical Realism, 17(3), 308–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2018.1493842

Resources

University of Southampton (southampton.ac.uk)

Fair Ways (fairways.co)