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There is probably nothing as centrally influencing to human beings as is their gender orientation. Whether one thinks of oneself as male or female, and good or bad at it, affects profoundly how one views the world and how one acts toward it. It would seem that such an ubiquitous developmental factor should be clearcut or at least well understood, since its obvious influence has acted as a prime motivator for researchers over the years. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and the relative importance of biological, parental, psychodynamic, sociocultural and other variables remains a confusing mire for anyone who confronts the literature seriously and thoroughly. To conclude that gender orientation has multiple roots is no doubt correct, but Green in this book and other writings has sought to improve on our specific understanding of how these variables usually interact to produce what outcome.
Although Green has studied psychoanalysis, endocrinology and law, his primary orientation is as a psychiatrist. Because recall has proven to be a very inexact method by which to obtain childhood data, Green embarked on a fifteen-year prospective study of two groups of boys. One group liked to dress up in female clothes, play with dolls rather than trucks, and avoid rough-and-tumble play and sports. These study boys were obtained through referrals from professionals or because their parents had heard of the