A six-year-old boy with a three-year history of transvestitism suffered from Oedipal and preoedipal anxieties. Psychotherapy of this child and his mother revealed the mother's wish for a penis. Her son's transvestitism represented his attempt to identify with his powerful and frightening mother. Their sadomasochistic relationship protected him from guilty Oedipal activity. On a deeper level he gratified his oral needs and avoided the risk of incorporation by her or becoming like her. An interesting feature of this case, which occurred at the end of therapy, was that the boy hallucinated the voice of a little person within himself who told him to do certain things.