ARTICLE

THE NATURE AND MANAGEMENT OF TRANSVESTISM: A MEDICAL VIEWPOINT

Rosemary FE-M-1 FPE

The following paper has been written, not by a trained psycholo- gist or psychiatrist, but by a physiologist, a transvestite of some 30 years' standing who has only recently discovered FPE. It is therefore a purely personal paper, based partly on introspection and partly on the author's general reading in psychology, sociology, &c. and the books mentioned below.

It is never safe to accept, in any field of study, a statement that a particular theory explains all relevant facts and that all other theories are false. If it is said that personality is all genetic constitution, or all the result of conditioning, or all this or all that, then it is certain that this statement is untrue. The one thing that is true about general- izations is that they are always false.

In my own thinking about the causes of the transvestite and transsexual states, based on my own experience of the former, and the reading of "The Transsexual Phenomenon" by Dr. Benjamin, "The Transvestite and his Wife" by Virginia Prince and the last 10 issues of Transvestia, I can see that many factors must be involved and that there are many different types of transvestic and trans- sexual persons.

However, one factor appears to have been largely ignored in dis- cussing the causes of the conditions. This is that a developing per- sonality reacts with and adapts to its psychological and social en- vironment, all the time adopting such courses of action as will enable it to preserve its own sense of identity and integrity. Elements of this idea are present in both psycho-analytic and conditioning theories of behavioural and emotional development, but the idea of a reacting, dynamic entity, always seeking for a way of living, thinking about,

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