The present thesis is a psychoanalytic theoretic reflection and multiple case study of non-traditional families. The intended aims of the study where, 1) to perform a systematic exploration of core features of already existing empirical material on the subject, 2) to perform a psychoanalytical and particularly object relations theoretical reflection on homosexual families and 3) to investigate qualitative case material on homosexual parents and their children’s fantasies and conception of their unique family constellation, in the context of the two previous chapters.
The qualitative research data consisted mainly of three different types of material; 1) clinical case material from a child psychotherapy case and work with the lesbian parents as presented by Corbett (2001); 2) a infant observation study of a single, gay man’s daughter as presented by Moskowitz (2010); and 3) an interview study of homosexual parents as presented by Friedman (2007). The analytic strategy was developed through the thesis first two chapters and the phenomenological deductive analysis Template Analysis was carried out.
The exploration of the empirical studies has only found few if any difference between children of heterosexual and homosexual parents and the studies suggest that children raised by same-sex parents fare equally well to children raised by heterosexual parents. The empirical studies did highlight features of homosexual families that could benefit from further qualitative research such as the parent-child relationship, attachment and separation. Object relations theory including the Oedipus complex and the process of triangulation proved to be useful in the study of the child’s psychosexual development in homosexual families and the family’s fantasies about their own family constellation. The completed analysis of the various data gave a valuable and rich insight into the unique challenges of homosexual families. The thematic approach to the data showed to be very useful as a baseline but leaved room for the themes to evolve through the use of them. The themes that seemed to be appearing often were the conscious and unconscious knowledge and fantasies of the donor. The fantasies were influenced of the parent’s grief and the child’s Oedipal situations. The Oedipal situation was in turn influenced by the parent’s sexual orientation and somehow the Oedipus complex seemed to be even more complex. This thesis underlines the impotency of this subject and therefore puts foreword a suggestion for further research.