The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman by Sigmund Freud

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Recommended: reflections on understanding gender identity

In "The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman", Freud discusses a case of a young woman brought to him by her parents for treatment as a homosexual. Although he states that Psychoanalysis is not truly a tool for curing homosexuality, but one to help those with inner conflict in one particular area or another, he attempts to study the girl to see if Psychoanalysis could be of any help to her. Once he realized that the girl had a deep rooted bitterness towards men, he called off his study of her and told her parents that if they were to seek more psychoanalysis for her it should be sought from a woman. Prior to this discovery he found a few things of interest that may have attributed to her choice of sexual object.

One of the first things Freud thought about was whether the patient was a homosexual from birth or whether she changed her object choice later in life. At the time it was thought that homosexuals had characteristics (physical a psychical) of the opposite sex. Though there were a few of these found in the girl, they were not strong enough to count for much. She was tall like her father and her features were sharper rather than soft and feminine, but she was still a beautiful and well developed girl. As far as psychical characteristics that were more masculine, he listed sharp comprehension, and objectivity in that her passion did not have complete control over her. Still there were women at the time who had traits such as these and were not homosexual.

The characteristic the girl displayed that was the most manly, however, was the way she acted and thought in regards to the Lady she was in love with. The girl preferred to think of herself as the lover, not the beloved. Simply being allowed to...

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... had been there for the birth of one of her brothers and it had not effected her. Yet when her second brother was born she completely switched her object choice. This could have been a coincidence, but I am of the school that says there are no coincidences. All things have reason behind them, somewhere.

Though Freud had issues with women which shaped his views on cases such as this one somewhat differently, he remained rather objective throughout. His reasoning behind the events that brought the girl to him made sound, logical sense. Even his reason for dumping this case and suggesting they take it up with a different psychoanalysist made a lot of sense. It is definitely more logical than pushing ahead against and almost un-budge-able brick wall build up of bitterness and resentment of men. All in all I was pretty impressed by a man who many bad mouth today.

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