Part 1: The Psychoanalyst and the “Homosexual”: A Long, Dark Journey Into Light

Abstract

Part 1 of this article describes an emergence from an unenlightened time in American society when mental health professionals deemed people who acted on feelings of same sex attraction “sick” and devised treatments to try and cure them. Ultimately, when political activists and the research community challenged the science and even the ethics of such methods, leading voices within the psychoanalytic community staunchly held on to unscientific views and fought against progressive voices. The results devastated countless lives, and though the psychoanalytic community has since joined the progressives, many individuals are still paying the price for this legacy of intolerance and intransigence. Extensive quotes from multiple sources are used throughout this article to demonstrate the prevalence and pervasiveness of such theories and practices in decades past. In Part 2, I provide the transcript of an extensive interview with a man who recalls the very damaging psychotherapeutic treatment he received over many years.

Keywords:

• homosexuality
• LGBT
• psychoanalysis
• psychotherapy
• homophobia