73.

Dear Editor:

***** LETTER FROM A DOCTOR *****

I am a psychiatrist practicing in New York City and interested in the problems of transvestites. I was there- fore very interested when a copy of "TRANSVESTIA" came to my attention recently. It was issue #3 and in it was an article by "Virginia" dealing with her experiences with psychiatry--both fortunate and unfortunate. I would like to try and clarify a few misconceptions about the processes of psychotherapy.

Psychiatry as practiced today is much more versatile than in the past. It permits many more individuals to profit from therapy in many new ways. People may be help- ed with any number of feelings, but most important of all the psychiatrist does not have to demand that the person- ality as a whole undergo change.

Persons with unusual interests are often unusually burdened people because they have to cope with extra prob- lems from both within and without. This does not mean,

however, that to live a happier life they must give up their interest entirely. Whether the difficulty be ex- cessive guilt, depression, timidity, loneliness, the in- ability to enjoy life or whatever, they should not de- prive themselves of psychiatric assistance because of their unusual interests.

In fact, psychaiatry may help create a freer expres- sion of such an unusual interest. Consider the case of a transvestite who suddenly and for no apparent reason be- comes guilty about his cross-dressing and destroys his carefully and laboriously acquired finery. Such an indi- vidual may go to a psychiatrist because of unbearable guilt and depression, or because he wants to lose his in- terest in feminine apparel or both. Whatever the reason he may through increased self-understanding that he ac- quires in psychotherapy become less guilty and resume his interest. Of course other individuals may with increased self-understanding give up their interest, but very few psychiatrists will expect the interest to go away as the result of a glib explanation, however correct, and fewer