Choosing Family: Meaning and Membership in the Lesbian Family of Choice

SUMMARY

This conceptual/theoretical article uses the psychodynamic Self Psychology model for the development of a vital, harmonious, and cohesive self to describe and understand the psychological importance of family for lesbian women. How can a healthy lesbian self be developed, nurtured, and maintained in an oppressive sexist and homophobic world? Family relationships are shown to fulfill the three fundamental psychological functions that sustain the lesbian self. In the absence of genetic and/or legal criteria, the basis on which someone is considered “family” is explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Lesbian
• lesbian family
• self psychology
• self
• family
• family of choice

Acknowledgments

Valory Mitchell received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been on the faculty at the California School of Professional Psychology for 17 years. She has been a visiting research psychologist at the Institute for Personality and Social Research at UC Berkeley, and a scholar at the Rockway Institute, a research and policy institute focusing on LGBT issues. She has a psychotherapy practice in Berkeley.