53.
previously about childhood origins, castration complexs in childhood etc. I wonder how the medical profession explains the development of TVism in persons aged 15 and up who have long left these childhood periods behind. There is one fascinating case presented elsewhere in this issue that should strain the theories of causation as presented in this article.)))
The Question of Female Transvestism:
The above quoted views are largely concerned with male transvestism, while female transvestism is rarely mentioned. This is due to the fact that transvestism is a typically male sexual deviation. If the psychoanalytic view (that transvestism represents a symbolic denial of castration fear through creation of a phallic woman) were accepted, there could be no place for female transvestism, which Fenichel règards as "a displacement of the envy of the penis to an envy of masculine appearance," and which to a transvestite woman "may give the illusion that spec- tators might believe in the existence of such a penis." Similarly Barahal sees in female transvestism only "a drive for masculinity". Thus "Thus "Janett Thompson" remains isolated in his view that "transvestism occurs in both the male and the female," and that "the causes and dynamics and problems faced are very similar".
(((Ed Note: I just cant refrain from a few caustic comments---Psychoanalysts from Freud on up must be insecure in their own sexuality since they lay so much. stress on masculine organs. It is nothing but PENIS- PENIS-PENIS, envy, castration, fear etc. Since when in the rest of the animal kingdom is the male so all- fired important? The female of all species is in principle more important than the male in the same serse that the garden and the soil are more important than the gardener who merely plants the seed. If women can "envy masculine appearance" and like to think of themselves as having a penis, why cant males be considered as able to envy feminine appearance, and more importantly to envy the female role in re- production such that they enjoy and find symbolic