MACHIDA Naoto［Affiliation　April 2022-March 2024］

Research fields

developmental psychology
clinical psychology
qualitative research

Research Interests

transgender
in-depth talking approach

Professional Memberships

Japanese Association of Qualitative Psychology
The Japanese Psychological Association
The Association of Japanese Clinical Psychology
Japanese Society of Gender Identity Disorder

Main research topics

I have been exploring the actual feelings and bodily senses (“qualia”) that accompany the experiences of living as transgender individuals, based on interview research and dialogical autoethnography. The research I have conducted to date has focused on the following three main topics.

First, I have analyzed interview data aiming to reconsider gender dysphoria from a relational perspective. As a result, it was found that sexuality is a state of existence and a mode of behavior that has been formed through the history of relationships with others, and that it is perceived by others as an “atmosphere”.

Second, I analyzed the experiences of transgender people, focusing on the actual feelings that accompany their experiences. Based on the analysis, I discussed the various aspects of the feelings that accompany the experiences of living transgender lives, such as the feeling of bated breath and the feeling of guilt. From this analysis, I found that behind the various feelings of transgender people is a structure in which they live their lives in such a way as to fit themselves into the gender roles of women or men that have been prepared for them in society. I named this phenomenon “mimicry” and argued that it is a concept that can illuminate the complexity of the transgender experienced world.

Third, in order to further deepen consideration of the participants’ experiences, I conducted a dialogical autoethnography in which I explored the deeper structure of the researcher’s own experiences as a transgender individual in dialogue with another person. The analysis was conducted by resonating the results of this process with the interviews. The results showed that social and linguistic concepts such as “transgender” can serve as a receptacle for transgender people to keep their undifferentiated sense of self, but it is even more important to have others who are attuned to such prelinguistic senses and atmosphere. I have named such socio-linguistic concepts and specific others as “container” to provide a place for the undifferentiated senses of transgender individuals.

Representative papers

Naoto, Machida Living a Transgender Life: The “Qualia” of Experience Drawn from In-depth Talking (single-authored), Minerva Shobo, 2022.

Naoto, Machida An Explorative Inquiry into Actual Feelings Involved with Experiences of Living a Transgender Life. The Japanese Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 37(2), 28-35, 2020.

Research URL

researchmap　https://researchmap.jp/n.machida

Global issues to be solved through this project

Exploring the Realities and Lived Experiences of Transgender Individuals with Developmental Disorders

Recently, in the context of international research on transgender (TG) people, it has begun to be reported that a high percentage of TG people have developmental disorders (especially autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). In addition, a high prevalence of depression and anxiety among TG individuals with developmental disorders has been reported, as has their susceptibility to secondary disorders. In order to improve their mental health, it is necessary to first conduct research to elucidate (1) the actual situation and the lived experiences of them, and (2) to gain a foundation for the creation of a psychosocial support system. Through conducting these studies, it will be possible to highlight the experiences of people that have been ignored in independent studies on developmental and sexual diversity, and to improve the support system for them.

MACHIDA Naoto［Affiliation April 2022-March 2024］