Gender identity in the homosexual male : identifying and testing two theories of object relations within the personality

Male homosexuality can be understood as an expression of the gender of the self. Three aspects of the self are proposed in a hypothetical model of the homosexual male and compared to the heterosexual male and female. One aspect is subjectivity and this study hypothesizes that the subjective experience of the gender of the self is associated with homosexuality and heterosexuality. The remaining two aspects are both objectivities. It is hypothesized that sexual preference is the objective expression of the gender of the subjective self. It is hypothesized that sexual preference is not related to biological sex (sexual identity). The two objective attitudes are defined as the extremities of a continuum of spontaneity: from involved objectivity to detached objectivity. This difference in spontaneity within a homosexual group describes the differential development of homosexual identification: from a developed homosexual role to an under-developed or absent homosexual role. The absence or development of the homosexual role are differences in spontaneity and these differences are associated with measures of psycho- and socio-pathology. Traditionally, homosexuality has been understood to be an outcome of a different sexuality. This study shows that sexuality is not related to homosexuality as a subjective expression of self. Sexual preference is, however, the objective expression of that subjectivity. Sex and gender are confounded in the literature. The confusion of the sex and gender literature, and the perplexity of the homosexuality literature, is partially resolved by the separation of two distinct but inter-related frames reference. These are the sociological and the psychological frames of reference. The results strongly support the conclusion that homosexuality is related to the subjective experience of the self and that homosexuality is an objective expression of that subjectivity as a sexual preference. Homosexuality is not synonymous with sexual preference or homosexual role, it also includes the psychological precursor of the subjective experience of gender, that is, gender identity. There is empirical support for a proposed persons-grammar theory of personality that uses a psychological frame of reference. Overall the results support this theoretical development and models of homosexuality, anxiety, and psychosis utilizing this theoretical framework.