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My purpose in this paper is to report the main elements of the analysis of a transvestite man through the prism of his marital interaction as it emerged in his treatment. Increasingly, as this man's analysis evolved, the clinical material centered on the wife's complementary pathology to her husband's transvestism and the role it subsequently played in perpetuating his transvestite behavior over the years of their marriage. The analysis of the transference brought forth not only the re-enactment of the infantile roots of his transvestism, but it also provided a vehicle for the working through of these early conflicts on a new level, namely, that of the complementary transvestite pathology of the marital interaction.
The patient, a rather small yet strikingly handsome 36-year-old man, was employed in a managerial position in an international corporation. His position required considerable travel involving visiting branch offices of his firm. He and his wife, whom he met while they were both attending college, had been married for some 15 years and were childless. Both of them have wanted children, but she has never been able to conceive. He acknowledges that he is “probably the guilty party” because of his low sperm count, but his wife has refused to adopt a child as an alternate course. This has been a sore point between them for many years.