Paternal Absence as the Strongest Factor of Homosexuality
Paternal Absence as the Strongest Factor of HomosexualityAbsence of a Father Figure as the Strongest Factor in Male Homosexuality
The condition “homosexuality” commonly evokes a negative impression from most people, especially in conventional societies as the Philippines. For many years most psychiatrists presupposed that homosexuality was a form of mental illness, until 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association (APA) decided to define such condition as a normal behavior. Homosexuals, as described by APA, are “individuals whose sexual interests are directed toward people of the same sex and who are either bothered by, in conflict with, or wish to change, their sexual orientations.”
As aforementioned, traditional societies consider homosexual relationships illicit and immoral. However, what these societies have not taken into account is that there is a deeper reason than merely having carnal desires toward the people of the same sex underlying the causation of homosexuality among men: a cause rooted in the family.
Homosexual orientation depends on the difficulties in the parent-child relationship, especially in the early, formative years of life. When the child suffers from an unmet attachment-need to the parent of the same-sex, the child seeks affection from a member of the same-sex. In the case of the son, the deficit in the relationship with the father is the one being compensated. This theory is what Dr. Elizabeth Moberly holds, John F. Harvey noted.
To further understand how do difficulties in the relationship with the father causes male homosexuality, it is important to know what is the role of the father in the overall sex role development of the son and why does the son resort to a homosexual relationship to be able to adapt in the absence of the father, physical or psychological.
The father is the main masculine model in the family. “…the father is the head. He is the strong masculine figure to which the boys inevitably identify with,” Pura Medina Flores noted, quoting Estefania Lim. He is the parent who provides a different element in the overall development of the son. During the son’s infant years, he is much attached with his mother. Beginning at about the age of three, the son starts to search for a masculine model on which to build his sense of self. He slowly withdraws himself from his mother and femininity. At some point, he might feel he is encountering a dilemma of losing his mother over identifying himself with his father. The father help lessen such struggle by gently drawing away the son from an overdependence on his mother and into interaction with the world at large.
As the son grows into a young adult, the presence or absence of the father will either solidify or confuse his sense of identity, most especially his sexuality. If this is the case, depriving the son of the availability of the father will leave him in a vulnerable...
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