Weissman distinguishes several types of overt bisexuality in men, basing his categories on differing psychodynamic constellations. The most detailed case report describes a patient whose overt bisexuality was essentially preoedipal in origin, and whose overt heterosexual behavior was a disguised form of passive homosexual contact. From this case material the author proceeds to a discussion of ego and superego aspects of preoedipal bisexuality and of fetishism in the latter.

The paper concludes with briefer case reports to illustrate the contrasting features of two quite different kinds of overt bisexuality, both based primarily in Oedipal conflicts rather than in preoedipal sources. In one case the overt homosexual acts were the prelude to a repetitive acting out of the patient's special mode of defeating his father in an Oedipal struggle. In the other case the sporadic episodes of overt homosexuality were defenses against intense castration and separation anxiety related to his Oedipal wishes.