Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“Do you love me?”: The question of the queer child of psychoanalysis

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Queer children and LGBT youth often continue to find in the psychotherapeutic setting and the clinical literature an ill-prepared and even aversive reception. Suicidality among such children draws especially sharp attention to the need for better alternatives to current treatment modalities—the focus here is chiefly on the relational area, with its emphasis on the coupling norm and attachment theory—and, more broadly, for the further comprehensive development of queer- and LGBT-affirmative psychoanalytic theory and practice. In advocating for at-risk queer children, I also argue that the queer child is a meaningful transferential figure for the improved life-chances of psychoanalysis itself and for the enhanced role of psychoanalytic theory and practice in the realm of social transformation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edn. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association. dsm.psychiatryonline.org, accessed 5 August 2014.

  • Anderson, Cooper 360 Degrees. (2011) The sissy boy experiment. CNN News. 7,8,9 June.

  • Benjamin, J. (1998) Shadow of the Other: Intersubjectivity and Gender in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berlant, L. (2007) Slow death: (Sovereignty, obesity, lateral agency). Critical Inquiry 33(4): 754–780.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bersani, L. and Phillips, A. (2008) Intimacies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Borinsky, A. (2011) California love story. n+1 12: 143–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brady, M. (2011) “Sometimes we are prejudiced against ourselves”: Internalized and external homophobia in the treatment of an adolescent boy. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 47(4): 458–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bromberg, P. (2011) The Shadow of the Tsunami and the Growth of the Relational Mind. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavitch, M. (2013) Irregulars. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 49(3): 410–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheuvront, J. (2010) Life-long coupled relationships and psychoanalysis: Reconsidering developmental milestones and measures of normality in clinical theory. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology 5(1): 37–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., Owen, A., Kaijser, V.G., Bradley, S.J. and Zucker, K.J. (2003) Demographic characteristics, social competence, and behavior problems in children with gender identity disorder: A cross-national, cross-clinic comparative analysis. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 31(1): 41–53.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, G.W. (2005) Categories as symptoms: Conceptions of love in the psychoanalytic relationship. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 74(4): 977–987.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, K. (2001) More life: Centrality and marginality in human development. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 11(3): 313–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, K. (2009a) Boyhood femininity, gender identity disorder, masculine presuppositions, and the anxiety of regulation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 19(4): 353–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, K. (2009b) Boyhoods: Rethinking Masculinities. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drescher, J. and Byne, W. (2012) Introduction to the special issue on “The treatment of gender dysphoric/gender variant children and adolescents”. Journal of Homosexuality 59(3): 295–300.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrensaft, D. (2007) Raising girlyboys: A parent’s perspective. Studies in Gender and Sexuality 8(3): 269–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrensaft, D. (2012) From gender identity disorder to gender identity creativity: True gender self child therapy. Journal of Homosexuality 59(3): 337–56.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Florio, G. (1998) Slaying spurs debate on hate crime. The Philadelphia Inquirer. 13 October A01.

  • Fonagy, P. (2009) Psychosexuality and psychoanalysis: An overview. In: P. Fonagy, R. Krause and M. Leuzinger-Bohleber (eds.) Identity, Gender, and Sexuality: 150 Years after Freud. London: International Psychoanalytic Association, pp. 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1977) Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Translated by D. F. Bouchard and S. Simon. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1951) Letter to an American mother. American Journal of Psychiatry 107(10): 787.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frosch, D. (2008) Death of a transgender woman is called a hate crime. The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com, 2 August, accessed 28 February 2015.

  • Gelé, K. et al (2012) Emerging views on gender and sexuality: Celebrating twenty years of new perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 60(5): 949–967.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldner, V. (2011) Trans: Gender in free fall. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 21(2): 159–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2009) Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, A. (2005) Gender as Soft Assembly. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, A. (2009) Analytic safety through the analyst’s availability as a subject. In: B. Willock, R. Curtis and L. Bohm (eds.) Taboo or Not Taboo? Forbidden Thoughts, Forbidden Acts in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. London: Karnac, pp. 267–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isay, R. (2009) Being Homosexual: Gay Men and Their Development. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Itaborahy, L.P. and Zhu, J. (2013) State-Sponsored homophobia, a world survey of laws: Criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-sex love. Brussels: International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), http://www.refworld.org/docid/519b6c2f4.html, accessed 2 August 2014.

  • Karch, D.L., Logan, J., McDaniel, D.D., Floyd, C.F. and Vagi, K.J. (2013) Precipitating circumstances of suicide among youth aged 10-17 years by sex. Journal of Adolescent Health 53(1): S51–S53.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, M. (1963) The concept of cumulative trauma. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 18: 286–306.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kiersky, S. (2005) Revenge and forgiveness in psychoanalysis: Commentary on Stephen Wangh’s “revenge and forgiveness in Laramie, Wyoming”. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 15(5): 771–778.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, M.L. Jr. (1958, 1986) The power of nonviolence. In: J.M. Washington (ed.) A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, NY: HarperCollins, pp. 12–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, M. (2011) The queer relationship between psychoanalysts and their gay and lesbian patients. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 25(4): 308–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kupers, T. (2009) The turn away from social activism in psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry 37(4): 581–586.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lacan, J. (1992) The paradox of jouissance. In: J.-A. Miller (ed.) The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-1960: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII. Translated by D.Porter. New York, NY: Norton, pp. 163–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewes, K. (2003) Homosexuality, homophobia, and gay-friendly psychoanalysis. In: D. Moss (ed.) Hating in the First Person Plural: Psychoanalytic Essays on Racism, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Terror. New York, NY: Other Press, pp. 161–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, S. (2002) Can Love Last? The Fate of Romance Over Time. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, A. (2001) Vigil held to remember slain gay teen-ager. Lincoln Journal Star. 7 September, p. B1.

  • Orbach, S. (2002) The Impossibility of Sex: Stories of the Intimate Relationship Between Therapist and Patient. New York: Touchstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, J. (1982) Introduction 2. In: J. Mitchell and J. Rose (eds.) Feminine Sexuality: Jacques Lacan and the École Freudienne. New York: Norton, pp. 27–57.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rutter, M., Kreppner, J. and Sonuga-Barke, E. (2009) Attachment insecurity, disinhibited attachment, and attachment disorders: Where do research findings leave the concepts? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 50(5): 529–543.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Saketopoulou, A. (2011a) Queer children, new objects; the place of futurity in Loewald’s thinking. DIVISION/Review: A Quarterly Psychoanalytic Forum 1: 38–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saketopoulou, A. (2011b) Minding the gap: Intersections between gender, race, and class in work with gender variant children. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 21(2): 192–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saketopoulou, A. (2014a) Mourning the body as bedrock: Developmental considerations in treating transsexual patients analytically. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 65(5): 773–806.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saketopoulou, A. (2014b) Perversion’s aspiration. Paper presented at Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York University, NYC, 21 November.

  • Salamon, G. (2010) Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuels, A. (2010) Shadows of the therapy relationship. European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling 12(3): 207–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, D. (2012) Listening to children imagining gender: Observing the inflation of an idea. Journal of Homosexuality 59(3): 460–479.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sedgwick, E. (1991) How to bring your kids up gay. Social Text 29: 18–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, E. (2014) Jessica Dutro murder trial: motive for Tigard killing was 4-year-old’s perceived homosexuality, prosecutors say. The Oregonian, 27 March, http://www.oregonlive.com, accessed 25 February 2015.

  • Smothers, R. (2003) Man charged with bias crime for girl’s killing in Newark. The New York Times, 25 November, p. B8.

  • Spitzer, R.L. (2003) Can some gay men and lesbians change their sexual orientation? 200 participants reporting a change from homosexual to heterosexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior 32(5): 403–417.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, D. (1997) Unformulated Experience: From Dissociation to Imagination in Psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stockton, K. (2009) The Queer Child; or, Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Surdin, A. (2008) Gay youth’s slaying spurs call for tolerance. The Washington Post, 29 March, p. A02.

  • Tan, S. (2011) Teenager struggled with bullying before taking his life. Buffalo News, 20 September, p. B1.

  • Waidzunas, T. (2011) Young, gay, and suicidal: Dynamic nominalism and the process of defining a social problem with statistics. Science, Technology and Human Values. Prepublished March 23, doi:10.1177/0162243911402363.

  • Wronge, Y.S. and Reang, P. (2002) Suspects in boy’s killing will face hate crime charge. Contra Costa Times. 19 October A12.

  • Zucker, K. and Spitzer, R. (2005) Was the gender identity disorder of childhood diagnosis introduced into DSM-III as a backdoor maneuver to replace homosexuality? A historical note. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 31(1): 31–42.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Lauren Berlant, J. P. Cheuvront, Diana Fuss, Robert Grossmark, Lynne Layton, Heather Love, Maggie Robbins, Mari Ruti, Avgi Saketopoulou, and Dawn Skorczewski for their generous and transformative readings of various drafts.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of Pennsylvania, 3340 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 19104-6273, PA, USA

    Max Cavitch

Authors
  1. Max Cavitch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Max Cavitch.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cavitch, M. “Do you love me?”: The question of the queer child of psychoanalysis. Psychoanal Cult Soc 21, 256–274 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2015.22

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2015.22

Keywords

Search

Navigation