David Oliver Cauldwell (June 17, 1897 – August 30, 1959) was a prolific and pioneering
sexologist
Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism.
Sexologists a ...
, who coined the term
transsexual
Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignmen ...
as used in its current definition.
[ Many of his monographs on sex, psychology, or health were published by ]Emanuel Haldeman-Julius
Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (''né'' Emanuel Julius) (July 30, 1889 – July 31, 1951) was a Jewish-American socialist writer, atheist thinker, social reformer and publisher. He is best remembered as the head of Haldeman-Julius Publications, the crea ...
in such forms as Big Blue Book
Big Blue Books are a series of small staple-bound books published from 1925 to 1950 by the Haldeman-Julius Publishing Company of Girard, Kansas (1919–1978), larger than the Little Blue Books. The series included both reprints and first publica ...
s. He was the editor of Sexology magazine's question and answer department.[ Cauldwell and ]Harry Benjamin
Harry Benjamin (January 12, 1885 – August 24, 1986) was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people.
Early life and career
Benjamin was born in Berlin, and raised in a German ...
were "two early and important American voices on transsexuality".
Biography
He was born on June 17, 1897 in Cleveland, Ohio to Gilbert Cauldwell, a surgeon; and Virginia Oliver-Wright.[ Cauldwell reports himself as having had an interest in sexual anatomy since his childhood. He studied medicine at the Chester College of Medicine and Surgery (later merged with Loyola University Chicago) and at ]Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...
.[ 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
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
, 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.[
In 1949 he used the term transsexual in his essay ''Psychopathia Transexualis'' to describe individuals whose sex assigned at birth was different from their ]gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the ...
.[The German term "transsexualismus" was introduced by ]Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist.
Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Com ...
in 1923, Cauldwell appears to be the first to use the term for those who desired a change of physiological sex. Compare ''Die intersexuelle Konstitution'' in ''Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen'' by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1923 versus ''Psychopathia Transexualis'' by David Oliver Cauldwell in 1949. 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. He advocated acceptance of homosexuality and of transvestism.
He died on August 30, 1959 in El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
of cirrhosis of the liver
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in El Paso, Texas.[Death certificate for David Oliver Cauldwell]
References
Further reading
*Cauldwell, David Oliver. ''The Diary of a Sexologist: Intimate Observations and Experiences Revealed When a Doctor Tells His Story'' Haldeman-Julius Big Blue Book B-821 (1949).
Works
'' The titles of the Haldeman-Julius publications were chosen by or at the insistence of Haldeman-Julius, to provoke sales.">/nowiki>The titles of the Haldeman-Julius publications were chosen by or at the insistence of Haldeman-Julius, to provoke sales./nowiki>''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cauldwell, David Oliver
American sexologists
1897 births
1959 deaths
Deaths from cirrhosis
Transgender studies academics