Has anyone read this interview with Philippa Perry?

Greyson Perry is pretty open that there is a sexual component to his dressing as Claire and that passes me off - other people need to be uncomfortable for him to get his sexual thrills.

Indeed. He said that the dresses he wears when dressed as Claire, a little girl, have to have a wide skirt in order to hide his erection. And that as he became more well known and people were less shocked about his appearance, the thrill dissipated.

Little wonder she's not going talk about trans issues. Her husband getting his rocks off by using the pubic as unwilling participants in his cross dressing fetish, probably isn't something she wants being linked to transgenderism.

I've found both Perrys disappointing.

Grayson, who is an interesting artist and a fabulous art communicator also uses others for his fetish.

And Phillippa's advice has sometimes, as noted above, been far from as wise as I'd hoped it might be.

Book out, has she?

I think she's great. Her role is psychotherapist and author, and I think she needs to speak a certain way in order to keep her wisdom available to people with differing beliefs. There are many who could learn from her "Our bodies aren't another ‘thing’, like a handbag. We are our bodies, they are us, and when we don't look after our bodies – when we attack our bodies – we are attacking ourselves. The body is incredibly important in psychotherapy; there isn't a mind/body split. This is basic stuff, but it really needs to be said."

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read is written in accessible language (rare in psychotherapy!); I think she comes across as completely sensible. I don't doubt she'd take safeguarding seriously for an individual client. But her general stance is to be non-judgemental, as a therapist ought to be.

Remember how captured the therapy world is, with some practitioner's seemingly unwilling to explore with any depth as soon as a client says "trans", and all too keen to jump on the lucrative gender bandwagon. I massively admire people like James Esses and Sacha Ayad, but think that Perry's approach is important too.

You have to be quite wilfully "misunderstanding" to think that redefining what a woman and what a man are affects very few people.

Like, really deliberately. Bordering on the dishonest.

Greyson Perry is pretty open that there is a sexual component to his dressing as Claire and that passes me off - other people need to be uncomfortable for him to get his sexual thrills.

I think philippa perry has a great deal of privilege and like many privileged people she struggles to consider people who are less fortunate

I read her agony column in the Observer and sometimes the advice she has given to a reader has seriously concerned me. It can be tangential, and/or just plain odd.
I see also also quite a few people (readers) have taken direct issue with what she has advised the people who have written in for help.
(I think there was an online comment section on her column at one stage; I'm not sure if that is still the case.)

There's an interview between Philippa Perry and Suzanne Moore here which makes her position much clearer: https://suzannemoore.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-philippa-perry?r=cldek&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

I really like her. She’s got such an interesting life and I think her perspective is really interesting too. There aren’t many psychologists who have this sort of profile and I think she’s brave for putting herself out there. Her social media posts always seem very genuine.

It’s pretty fucking obvious what her experience and thinking is around the trans stuff. I don’t blame anyone for not setting their career on fire over it. I wouldn’t do it myself.

In short I think that dismissing her because of the trans thing is just another extreme black and white response. Some of her advice is good and some I disagree with. I still really admire her as a woman thought leader.

What about the inflamed online debate on trans issues, does she follow that?
“I do not follow it, no. It seems to be the flag they want to die for, even though it affects very, very few people. It’s social contagion again.”
Who does she mean by “they”? Perry replies: “People who like arguing.” On both sides? “Yes.”

So she rails against social contagion, but when it comes to trans, it’s the arguing that’s the social contagion not the massive increase in teenage girls that’s come out of nowhere? Not a social contagion that results in girls getting mastectomies? She can’t see that? And as a therapist she has no interest in engaging into thinking why so many teenage girls are coming out as trans given the harm this brings?

How incredibly disappointing.

“There’s now this fashion for ‘if I agree with you about 19 things and disagree with you about one, that means you are a totally bad person’. There is a lot of all-or-nothing thinking. We used to be able to be friends with people from different political parties or different schools of psychotherapy or whatever.”

This is quite relevant. I’ve generally quite liked her whenever I’ve seen her or read some of her writing.

She refusues to discuss the Trans issue as it doesn't effect many people and people just like arguing about it.
Translation: it's not an issue for her.

Of course it's not. She's married to Grayson with his alter ego Claire. He doesn't claim he's not a man.

Do you not think her particular angle on humanity looks like it is falling out of favour? This looks like an effort to raise her profile.