A Comparison of the MMPI Results for Psychiatric Patients and Male Applicants for Transsexual Surgery

Abstract

Previous studies have been evenly divided in concluding that male sex change applicants do or do not evidence signs of psychopathology on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory testing. To clarify the discrepant findings, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scale comparisons were made between sex change applicants who had been living continuously as women, applicants who had been living predominantly as men, and groups of psychiatric inpatients and outpatients. Findings revealed that members of both applicant groups were more likely than psychiatric patients to score high on a measure of femininity. However, applicants living as men were as disturbed as psychiatric patients on all other measures of psychopathology, whereas those living as women showed a notable absence of psychopathology. Like the psychiatric patients, applicants living as men produced significant elevations on the Depression, Psychopathic Deviate, Psychasthenia, and Schizophrenia Scales. A variety of group comparisons also revealed serious emotional disturbance in one sex change applicant group and none in the other. The results help to explain the previous discrepancies in the literature and underline the importance of the "living as female" variable for predicting disturbance in sex change applicants.