Susan Jane Bradley (born 1940) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

best known for her work on

gender identity disorder in children Gender dysphoria in children (GD), also known as gender incongruence of childhood, is a formal diagnosis for children who experience significant discontent (gender dysphoria) due to a mismatch between their assigned sex and gender identity. The ...

. She has written many journal articles and books, including ''Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents'' (with Kenneth Zucker) and ''Affect Regulation and the Development of Psychopathology.'' Bradley was chair of the ''

DSM-IV The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langu ...

'' Subcommittee on Gender Disorders.Bradley SJ, Blanchard R, Coates SW, Green R, Levine SB, Meyer-Bahlburg HFL, Pauly IB, Zucker KJ (1991). Interim report of the DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. ''

Archives of Sexual Behavior The ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in sexology. It is the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research. History The journal was established in 1971 by Richard Green, who served as its e ...

'' Volume 20, Number 4 / August, 1991 Bradley served as Head of the Division of Child Psychiatry and was Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Hospital for Sick Children and was consultant psychiatrist at the

Clarke Institute of Psychiatry The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (College Street site) is a psychiatric hospital in Toronto, Ontario. It is located at 250 College Street, just east of Spadina Avenue. Much of its work focuses on forensic psychology, sex addiction, ...

. She is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Psychiatry at

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and a fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

Personal

Bradley was born in

Niagara Falls, Ontario Niagara Falls is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is on the western bank of the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario, with a population of 88,071 at the Canada 2016 Census, 2016 census. It is part of the List of census ...

. She attended

, earning a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in 1962 and an M.D. in 1966. Prior to starting medical school, she worked for a year in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

with CUSO.

Career

Bradley was certified in medicine in 1967. She earned her specialty licenses in psychiatry and child psychiatry in 1972. In the late 1970s, Bradley founded the Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinic at the

. In collaboration with her co-author Zucker, she saw over 400 cases of children and adolescents with

gender identity disorder Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used unti ...

and related issues. Bradley served the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are invo ...

Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. She was Clinical Director of the Department of Psychiatry from 1984 to 1988 and Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Head of the Division of Child Psychiatry at the University of Toronto from 1988 to 1998. Bradley has argued that gender identity disorder in children is sometimes rooted in serious family problems, underlying

anxiety disorders Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal function are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physi ...

psychological trauma Psychological trauma, mental trauma or psychotrauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, rape, or natural disasters. Reactions such as psychological shock and psychological denial are typical ...

and might need other treatment than change of gender.Margaret Wente (8 May 2015
The raging battle over transgender kids
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

''
Archive
/ref> Because her therapeutic intervention for

is controversial, a 2007 celebration honoring Bradley's career was disrupted by transgender protesters.Gagnon, Audrey (April 12, 2007)
Boys will be girls: Gender identity clinic event disrupted by trans activists.
‘’ Xtra!’’ Bradley's longstanding interest in

parenting Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a ...

and evaluation of parenting programs led to her involvement in initiating The Parenting Alliance and the Infant Mental Health Promotion Project. The Council for Early Child Development named Bradley a Community Champion for her work developing the Early Years Centres.

Selected publications

According to the Web of Science Bradley has published over 50 articles in

peer-reviewed journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

s. These articles and her books have been cited over 700 times, giving her an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

of 16 * ''Gender identity disorder and psychosexual problems in children and adolescents'', 1996, Guilford Press, , with Kenneth J. Zucker *''Affect regulation and the development of psychopathology'', 2003, Guilford Press * "Physical Attractiveness of Girls with Gender Identity Disorder". 1996, The International Academy of Sex Research, ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 25, No. 1

References

External links

Susan J. Bradley profile
via Hospital for Sick Children {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Susan 1940 births Canadian psychiatrists Canadian sexologists Living people People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Transgender studies academics University of Toronto alumni University of Toronto faculty Canadian women psychiatrists Canadian expatriates in India