Transvestia

Dr. Beigel - a "curable" condition? Alright, let's take some human examples. A singer feels the compulsion to sing. This urge was acquired since the little brat was not born singing. How would Dr. Beigel go about "curing" this singer and erase from him the desire to sing? (Aside from cutting his throat, I mean). Or could one "cure" a painter who has acquired the compulsion to express himself in canvass and make him NOT to feel like painting? Or, let's take the "acquired" desire and interest in tinkering with engines and all sorts of mechanical things. Does Dr. Beigel think he can cure a boy who feels so inclines? who acquired this urge? I'm afraid that interest is going to stay there for keeps, just as the love for singing and the love for painting are a permanent, vital part of a singer and a painter's personality ....All these are acquired, yet permanent. what are Dr. Beigel's grounds to assume that because TVism is totally acquired (and again there are theories which do not wholly agree with this view) it can therefore be erased?

So,

"Transvestism" he says---"does not harm society either materially or morally, but there is no doubt that the phenomenon is a behavior disorder that indicates a personality disturbance." I would like to point out here that anybody who goes to see a psychotherapist, TV or non-TV, does so because he feels, or thinks he has, a personality disorder. So naturally every TV that Dr. Beigel has met in his office probably did suffer from personality disturbances. But how about the thousands of TV's who do not feel the need to go to a mental doctor? How about us, who feel that dressing gives us serenity, calm, contentment, happiness? But Dr. Beigel won't have any of this. He goes on to say: "By keeping up the myth if innate femininity, TV's try to convince the world of the compulsiveness of their acts and themselves of their unimpaired mental health. Yet anything which becomes a compulsion indicates sickness.

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