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This paper is about the treatment of a boy with a marked bisexual conflict. Edward was conflicted over both his sexual identity and his object choice, that is he often wished to be a girl rather than a boy and was, to his dismay, extremely attracted towards his own sex.
Edward was in analysis for four years, from the age of eleven to sixteen. As he moved from pre-adolescence through puberty to early and mid-adolescence, swings between masculine and feminine identifications, and heterosexual and homosexual strivings became a prominent feature of the analysis. I hope in this paper to show how we came to understand these swings in terms of his development, which both currently and in the past had been interfered with and distorted by a multitude of adverse external circumstances.
Edward's parents had been divorced some three years before his mother brought him to the Centre, but relations were still acrimonious and there was still a dispute over custody of the two children. Mrs M. was concerned that Edward had taken the divorce worse then his older brother, but she was aware that his disturbance was of a long-standing order. She described an unhappy, over-anxious and inhibited boy, excessively attached to her. His speech was at times seriously inhibited, especially with adults, and social contacts with peers were fraught with a sense of not being liked. Edward tended to withdraw from rough games and play, into quiet solitary activities like gardening and watching television. He was extremely anxious about school where, despite his excellent ability, his performance was erratic. He had developed a bedtime ritual in order to get to sleep and had many bad dreams. He expressed various fears such as “when things go wrong, I feel it's all because of me” and “perhaps there is something wrong with my insides”. He had apparently not said a word to his father since the divorce.
Mother herself was an intelligent, concerned, but highly disturbed wom