Psychiatric, Psychoanalytic, and Mental Health Profession Attitudes Toward Homosexuality in Switzerland

SUMMARY

During the past 10 years, theoretical models of homosexuality have changed in Switzerland from a pathological view to one in which homosexuality is a non-pathological orientation equivalent to heterosexuality. Although it is a rarely discussed topic in the professional literature, there is a growing number of courses and lectures about homosexuality in the universities and schools of social sciences in Switzerland. Pathologizing therapists are usually members of religious groups and they are not psychologists and psychiatrists with professional qualifications. In several towns, lesbian and gay therapists are working together in informal groups, and there is a national organization of lesbian and gay therapists called “medy gays.” Being openly lesbian or gay still carries great risk for psychiatrists and psychologists who may not be accepted for psychoanalytic training. Swiss Psychoanalytic institutes are reluctant to openly discuss their admission policies. The paper concludes by calling for investigations of the traumatic outcomes of sexual conversion therapies undertaken by fundamentalist religious groups and for more research regarding the situation of older lesbians and gays.

KEYWORDS:

• Gay and lesbian therapists
• non-pathological model of homosexuality
• research in homosexuality
• sexual conversion therapy
• Swiss psychiatry
• Swiss psychoanalysis