Psychoanalysis and Human Sexuality

The articles in this issue of JAPA address many topics, among them gender identity and gender role development; primary femininity; bisexuality; antihomosexual bias; and the psychological development and adult experience of lesbians and gay men. I begin my discussion by commenting on two areas not discussed in the papers that follow: the importance of late childhood peer relationships for psychosexual development, and the necessity of including brain-mind relationships in psychoanalytic discourse about human sexuality. I then discuss a number of other topics, and emphasize the way in which psychoanalytic thought has been subject to historical/cultural bias that has limited its understanding of human sexuality.

Late childhood is an important phase of life with respect to the development of sexual orientation (Herdt and McClintock 2000) and male homophobia (Friedman and Downey 2000b). Some discussion of the similarities and differences in the psychological and social functioning of boys and girls can help us place in developmental perspective many of the articles included in this volume. Innate temperamental differences in activity preferences and play styles lead to patterns of peer relations that differ in girls and boys; as a result, by mid- to late childhood play becomes gender-segregated. In fact, gender segregation of mid- and late childhood play occurs in virtually every culture in which children's play has been studied (Leaper 1994). The tendency for boys to play with boys and girls with girls peaks between ages eight and eleven and is motivated primarily by children, rather than learned from parents. Play is integrally related to peer relationships, and boys and girls tend