Paper Session C

11. Twinship Selfobject Experience and Homosexuality

Self Psychology Page | 23rd Conference Program

Overview

This paper explores the importance of the twinship selfobject experience in the psychological development and psychoanalytically-informed treatment of people who are gay. The definition and history of the concept of the twinship selfobject transference are briefly reviewed to provide a foundation. The experience of alienation, a common theme in the life histories of homosexual people, is discussed as a basis for and expression of the disruption of needed twinship selfobject experience in development and treatment. A case presentation of a young gay man, with particular emphasis on the importance of twinship issues in the transference, illustrates a self-psychological approach to understanding the treatment process. Three interventions that proved especially meaningful for the patient are understood as having provided crucial selfobject experiences of twinship in the transference. These interventions, which the therapist experienced as somewhat dystonic, allowed the patient to connect to and organize previously intolerable affects. The importance of the therapist's sensitivity to a potential particular vulnerability of the gay patient around twinship experience is elaborated on.

Self Psychology Page | 23rd Conference Program