A Discussion of Marc Miller's “Straight, Gay or Both”

ABSTRACT

Relational and intersubjective schools of psychoanalysis have been impressive in developing and maintaining high levels of patience and tact in their dealings with people who are homosexual. Nevertheless, a certain tentativeness about premature and tactless probing has also developed, which can serve as a disguise for serious therapeutic limitations and, unless attended to, can seriously derail or retard progress in analytic treatment. The case presented in Marc Miller's “Straight, Gay or Both,” of an analyst treating a homosexual or bisexual patient, serves to illustrate both the strengths and limitations of many contemporary “relational” treatments. Particular attention is directed to the ways that defensiveness against the analyst's experiences of homosexual impulses, disguised as undue concern for tact, can needlessly prolong the length of treatment, exacerbate the patient's dependency needs, and deepen his depressive reactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Countertransference
• gay
• homosexuality
• psychoanalysis
• psychotherapy
• sexuality
• sexual orientation
• shame
• transference