Bloomberg, Jonti Joey2024-08-162024-08-162023-02Bloomberg, Jonti Joey. (2023). The Black Homoerotic Oedipus: An Exploratory Multiple-Case Study on the Possible Cross-Cultural Applicability of a Depathologized Psychoanalytic Theory of Male Homosexuality. [Master's dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40166https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40166A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Educational Psychology) in the Faculty of Humanities, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, December 2022.Classical psychoanalytic theory famously hypothesises a process in the aetiology of male homosexuality whereby a boy identifies with his mother and takes himself as a love-object. In addition to acknowledging that there may be various mechanisms in the development of a homosexual disposition, contemporary psychodynamic theoreticians have attempted to distance themselves from this view by emphasizing the primacy of the negative Oedipus complex and the ‘heretical’ possibility of one being able to identify with and lust the same object in the development of a homosexual object choice in adulthood. The present study sought to determine the potential cross-cultural applicability of this aforementioned depathologized psychoanalytic theory of male homosexuality by way of three openly homosexual Black South African men. The study found that aspects of both the classical and depathologized psychoanalytic theories might have cross-cultural applicability. It also brought to the fore the many difficulties and forms of discrimination that Black South African homosexual men face within their communities.en©2023 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.PsychoanalysisMale HomosexualityCross-Cultural ApplicabilityHomophobiaUCTDSDG-5: Gender equalityDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg