The psychoanalytic perspective of adolescent homosexuality: a review

Psychoanalytic theory asserts that adolescent homosexuality is the result of unresolved infantile conflict experienced during the Oedipal and pre-Oedipal periods, in which inadequate object relations and identifications with parents predispose the individual to homosexuality in adolescence. Classical psychoanalytic thought emphasizes the importance of drives and defenses in the formation of homosexuality, while more contemporary approaches understand adolescent homosexuality from a psychosocial and early developmental perspective. In addition to childhood predispositions, the various developmental tasks of adolescence influence the degree and course of homosexuality. This article notes the different types of homosexuality that emerge in adolescence which are influenced by different psychodynamic conditions in each stage of adolescence. Changing developmental roles in relation to individuation, object relations, identification, and identity formation are a few of the factors that contribute to adolescent homosexuality.