this is sort of a science related question. Im just curious as to what causes bisexuality? has anyone done studies on this?
It depends who you listen to. I have never bought the idea that we are born with a sexual orientation. My experience with psychoanalysis and therapy tells me that in the first couple of years of life we develop emotional and erotic connections to those around us, mainly our parents. This happens before we are fully developed individuals. Rational thought develops later. That's why we find it so hard to make sense of any of this. It's beyond the reach of ordinary thinking with words. As for bisexuality in particular, I trace it in myself to what psychoanalysis calls a "split in the ego." It would take several pages to explain it though. But suffice it to say that my unconscious self seeks emotional and sexual gratification in both men and women. Straight people are drawn to the "opposite" sex; gay people to the same sex; and bisexual people are drawn to both. It's usually not exactly symmetrical. You might be more attracted to one or another in different ways. There are some studies on bisexuality, but I haven't found any that I thought were all that good. There's one called "Dual Attraction," which was published about 20 years ago and based on interviews with people who identified as bi. Another book I have read is called "Being Homosexual," written by a gay psychoanalyst. He focuses exclusively on men, and deals briefly with bisexuality.
Having just taken some courses related to this subject, I'd say first of all we don't have any reason to think bisexuality is a single "condition" (for lack of a less medicalizing term). Different people are probably bisexual for different reasons. Maybe some people are bisexual for the psychoanalytic reasons above. From my psych training, I'd say more of it probably has biological influences - possibly genes, hormones in utero, etc. We don't know a ton about it yet, but lots of research (especially twin studies) would suggest that there's some inherited component much of the time. Cultural conditions definitely play a big part in determining how people identify in terms of orientation. Kind of a difficult question to answer comprehensively, especially at this point in time. Hopefully research will explain it better in the future.
