Barbara returned for Richard when she began living in a stable lesbian relationship. Her lover, Donna, was an impulsive, violent woman who hated men and viciously abused Richard (physically and psycho logically). The relationship lasted almost eight years (though Barbara had innumerable lesbian affairs throughout the "marriage"), and terminated with the death of Barbara's stepfather. Fighting off an intense depression, Barbara subsequently developed a psychogenic arthritic condition and could not work. She then entered psychotherapy where she was seen once a week for five months by a colleague who did not recall any mention of transsexualism. The focus of the therapy was on Barbara's symptoms as a depressive equivalent, her need to mourn her stepfather's death, and the need to view her psychogenic symptoms as a depressive equivalent related to her emotional turmoil. Barbara also discussed her chaotic sexuality and confusing gender identity; she used the therapy to extricate herself from the relationship with Donna only to begin immediately a new symbiotic relationship with another woman like her own mother.

Barbara's new lover, Arlene, was a well known stripper who tantalized and excited men, but would never yield to them. She was plagued by chronic physical disease - stomach ulcers, blindness in one eye, and a heart ailment that required open heart surgery. Arlene yearned for a child, yet a recently diagnosed condition of chronic endometriosis precluded her becoming pregnant. The physicians wanted to perform a hysterectomy but feared she would become psychotic and requested psychological counseling pre surgery.

Arlene had already miscarried one baby, after being severely beaten in the abdomen by her husband. Yearning for a child, she eagerly attached herself to Richard, then a pre-adolescent, with whom she maintained an immature, voracious, clinging dependent, sadomasochistic, symbiotic relationship. She was extremely seductive with Richard and tried to coax him into a sexual relationship and would have succeeded had Richard not developed severe migraine headaches in her presence and eventually a full blown psychosis.

Arlene's appearance was telltale; she dressed sloppily and seemed disheveled; her cognitive behavior was characteristically scattered and confused. Yet she was an extremely verbal individual who latched on to people and engaged in "heady" psychological outpourings which, while reflecting a loss of control over her verbalizations, could easily be mistaken for warmth, empathy and openness. In order to assuage Arlene's need for a child, Barbara agreed to become pregnant to allow Arlene to raise the child. What was remarkable was that Barbara was willing to allow herself to be penetrated, to enact the role of a woman and have sex with a man, leading to a pregnancy which was bound to be tumultuous. (see TRANSSEX - THE IMPULSIVE PSYCHOPATH: BARBARA/BRIAN PART VIII)