Transvestia

involves a desire to now and then act as a woman. As it is known that strong psychodynamic forces are behind this desire and that the person in question must be regarded as socially well adjusted he is not to be forbidden this activity."

"For an average person the desire to dress in the clothes of the opposite sex and feel the female sex as the socially best one is a strange phenomenon," Dr. Kaplan comments. "It also has to be realized that the phenomenon is extremely complicated. In homosexual transvestism, the sexual direction is clearly homosexual and the aim is to make sexual contacts with persons of the same sex. But there is this big group of TVs who have no homosexual disposition, but see themselves as completely heterosexual persons, i.e. directed towards the opposite sex."

Homosexuality.

"Now it is true that a completely heterosexual human being does not exist. We all of us have a homosexual disposition which is unknown to most of us. Therefore, it cannot be excluded that a certain amount of homosexual interest comes into play in the heterosexual TVs. But typical of them is that their sexual behavior is that of the heterosexual man and that their desire to dress in feminine clothing does not involve catching a man or making a sexual partner interested. In contradistinction to the homosexual who is often a parody of feminine behavior, the heterosexual TV is quite properly feminine."

Why men like Eva Berg and Susanne Sjo feel the feminine role as socially better and more correct is difficult to prove in a scientific way. But experiences during early childhood are surely of great importance. However, the case is seldom so simple as a boy is forced to wear the clothes of a girl or that a boy is brought up as a girl. The causes surely lie deeply in the psyche, and outer facts only contribute to and canalize the behavior into this special form. It is also very characteristic that the desire of these men to dress in feminine clothes often is connected with a strong touch of fear. Some persons of this disposition do not have a strongly developed sex urge and some of them should be characterized as asexual. I remember a case a divorced man who did not show any interest in either women, including his wife or men. But when he was alone he usually dressed himself in the clothes of his wife and used her cosmetics.