Post 45
Male infants may experience physical trauma, illness or accident, that requires almost exclusive maternal care. From birth, some infants spend months struggling to live, while others nestle peacefully in their mother’s arms. Claude Hartland, America’s first gay autobiographer, wrote of being four when three of his fingers were severely burned. His injury required his mother’s extensive long-term care. He was never allowed to participate with his father and brothers as they performed outdoor manual labors. During his childhood, he grew to be like a girl in the exclusive company of his mother and sisters.
Sir John Bowlby clarified a critical principle. Social and emotional disturbances in children were highly associated with “either an absence of opportunity to make affectional bonds or else long and perhaps repeated disruptions of bonds once made.” During a time-sensitive critical period of physical and emotional development, Hartland failed to bond with his father and internalize the male identity. He became feminized and gradually erotically drawn to others who were different, those of his own gender. He had neither the male psyche nor the masculine skills to merge naturally and comfortably as one with them. They were alien, from two different worlds.
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