Father-son relationships : homosexuals and their fathers

Abstract

The research explores adult homosexual males' relationship with their fathers during their childhood and their adolescent years. It explores how homosexual sons subjectively experience the particular dynamics between themselves and their fathers. This study will also try to identify whether these men believe that their relationship with their fathers contributed to building their homosexual identity. The method of investigation is qualitative research in which five homosexual adult males are engaged in dialogue using in-depth interviewing. The results of these interviews were subjected to interpretive phenomenological analysis. The results gathered from these five men and their experience elicited the core theme of 'Father rejection', related to this theme the following sub-themes were elicited; 'Protecting the self from the rejection', 'Son rejection of father as a defensive strategy', 'Variations in the mother - son relationship', 'Father figures', 'Erotic attachment to the father - Plicate Oedipus', 'Aspects of rejection in adulthood' and 'Accepting the self. Using both conservative dominant psychoanalytic theory and non dysfunctional oriented, yet subjugated psychoanalytic theories, it will be discussed how such theories can explain the subjective experience of these men.