He interned at the Los Angeles County General Hospital, and spent four years in the United States Army.
With Abram Kardiner, Ovesey wrote The Mark of Oppression: A Psychosocial Study of the American Negro.
Published in 1951, it became a landmark study of the effect of contemporary culture on the black middle class.
[1] Ovesey's notion of pseudohomosexuality was one of the important developments that followed the Kinsey Report of 1948.
[2] Ovesey is also known for developing a taxonomy of male-to-female transsexual sexuality with Ethel Person, based on the developmental model of Margaret Mahler.