The “as if” Personality and Transvestitism*

Helen Deutsch,3 in 1942, called attention to a form of emotional disturbance in which the “individual's relationship to life has something about it which is lacking in genuineness and yet outwardly runs along ‘as if it were complete.” Those with this condition were designated “as if” personalities. Deutsch's paper is an important one, since it was one of the first to describe a psychopathological phenomenon in terms of a faulty introjection of objects. The condition has since been described by others,1,4,6-8,10,12,16,17,19,24 and Ross18 has reviewed the literature and discussed certain of its theoretical implications.

These “as if” individuals exhibit a defective capacity for love. They develop pseudoaffective relationships through identification with others. Their adaptation to reality depends on an ability to mimic others without appreciating their real emotions. The “as if” personality's relationships are often precipitously broken off by the partner, who senses the emptiness and dullness of the interaction and the lack of emotional commitment in the presence of seemingly appropriate behavioral response. When a rejection does take place, or a disruption of the relationship occurs, for whatever reason, “At the first opportunity the object is exchanged for a new one and the process is repeated…. Any object will do as a bridge for identification.” 2

This type of behavior is considered a reflection of a defective