Behavior, to be understandable to the observer, must be defined in terms of motivational goals. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the homosexual conflict. This conflict, as we have seen, can be broken down into three component parts: sexual, dependency, and power. Only the first is truly sexual in its motivation. The other two are not sexual at all, although they make use of the sexual apparatus to achieve their ends. They are in reality pseudohomosexual components of the homosexual conflict. All three components exist in varying strengths in different persons, and which component is in the ascendency at any given time can be inferred only from the motivational context in which the person's behavior becomes manifest. Variable combinations of these ingredients provide an adaptational formula by means of which the behavior of any particular person suffering from a homosexual conflict, either overt or hidden, can be understood.

In the overt homosexual, the sexual component is primary, and the primary motivational goal is therefore orgastic satisfaction. The dependency and power components are secondary, but nevertheless extremely important, because by their relative strengths they will determine the psychosocial structure of the homosexual relationship as well as the physical mechanics of the homosexual act. The overt homosexual in whom the dependency component is markedly strong gives up all pretense of meeting the requirements of the masculine role. He dramatizes his failure by the cultivation of quasi feminine traits that he uses as bait to attract his preferred object choice the stronger, more "masculine" male. He makes of his partner a parent and sets up a parent child relationship in which he aspires to be the child. For him, the major adventitious purpose of the homosexual act is dependency gratification, and, therefore, physically he gravitates toward fellatio and anal mount with himself each time on the recipient end. In this manner, magically, through the incorporation of his partner's penis, he repairs his own adaptive deficiencies.