The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Dissociative Identity Disorder in the Context of Trauma Therapy

Homosexuality is most probably variable in its pathway of origin. Reports of instances of when it has been possible to follow its development from childhood into adulthood are lacking in the literature. In this paper, the author describes his experience of treating two nine-year-old girls who had had serious problems in their relationships with their parents and who developed lesbian relationships when they became adults. In each instance, there were extremely traumatic experiences with the girl's father and failure of the mother to intercede on the girl's behalf. One patient was treated up into adolescence, with a follow-up later on, and the other was treated well into adulthood. Psychological factors that seem to have contributed to the eventual development of a lesbian sexual orientation are discussed in this paper.