Abstract This paper is intended as a modest contribution to conceptualizing the construction of gender and sexual role identity as well as its role in creative activity. Whether we are considering homosexual or heterosexual object orientation, there is no evidence that a psychic representation of core gender identity is inborn. Core gender and sexual role identity are shaped in large part by the experiences of early childhood and the parental discourse on sexuality and sexual role. Many years ago, the author wrote a paper entitled “Homosexuality in Women” which was based on a small number of analysands and the author mistakenly drew conclusions that she believed could apply to female homosexuality in general. As the years went by, her increasing experience, both with her ongoing self-analysis and what she learned from her lesbian analysands, led her to conclude that the generalisations she had proposed earlier were inappropriate and applied only to the analysands quoted in that paper. The criticisms stirr...