RANSVESTIA

My dear Virginia,

I purchased your books (Understanding Cross Dressing, The Trans- vestite and His Wife and How To Be A Woman Though Male) as the result of an ad placed in the Madison Press Connection. The clarity and logic of your comments in Cross Dressing provided me with an explanation of my conduct that I had not been able to analyze pre- viously. I am most grateful to you for your thoughts about this little known subject. As a result, I have been able to make peace with myself and to erase a sense of shame that has always bothered me about my own TV urges.

I solidly support your work but am uncertain how far I can go openly. In any event I felt impelled to at least thank you for your help.

Gratefully,

Kristin-WI

Dear Sisters:

My name is Patricia. At least that is what I call myself when I inhabit that world where we express our feminine side. I was born 43 years ago and grew up in the Boston area. I do not intend here to go through the usual litany of childhood transsexual fantasies, adoles- cent soul-searching, adult frustrations, conflicts and marital woes. What I share with many of you, I am sure, is that constant struggle between masculine and femine psyches and the ramifications of this inner conflict in our conventional lives.

How to resolve this dilemma or at least come to terms with it has been the real story of my life. I have experienced emotional highs and lows, advances and setbacks, praises and rebuffs. But what have I gotten out of this experience? The greatest lesson has been under- standing and appreciating others. This is not as simple as it sounds. About seventeen years ago I went to a psychoanalyst. After a while he told me that transvestism was a form of homosexuality. As far as I was concerned he was misunderstanding me and transvestism. I stopped therapy. Even though there were benefits in the analytic process and the sessions were helpful in other respects, I could see that the psychiatrist was trying to key me to his textbook-and

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