Does God Make Referrals? Orthodox Judaism and Homosexuality

Abstract

This article explores the intersection and conflict among homosexuality, Orthodox Judaism, and contemporary mental health theory and practice. The issue of homosexuality within the Orthodox community regarding mental health has generated major points of disagreement and opprobrium when it comes to mental health referral and treatment. In large measure, Orthodox Jewry has continued to seek a solution to the “homosexual problem” and still maintains this solution is to be found through conversion treatments. The authors, from a contemporary psychoanalytic understanding of self states, attempt to find ways to bridge what they refer to as the “incommensurable” gaps between Jewish orthodoxy and queerness.

KEYWORDS:

• dissociation
• homosexuality
• Orthodox Judaism
• psychoanalysis
• self states
• sexual orientation conversion efforts (SOCE)

Notes

¹This is similar to the beliefs of many conservative Christian communities in the Southern Baptist and Evangelical traditions.

²Rabbi Sherlo is the head of an Israeli yeshiva and is a member of the Israel National Board of Medical Ethics.

³See also Drescher (1998, 2002) and Shidlo, Schroeder, and Drescher (2002).

⁴Sometimes known as “Conversion Therapy” or “Reparative Therapy.”

⁵Also in Glassgold et al. (2009).

⁶There they quote two similar viewpoints (translation ours): “Basically, naturally and normally, there is no reason that a man and woman would want to sit next to each for even one minute, because their basic nature is so essentially different from each other. They are two types that are so different essentially, intrinsically and self-interests  …  They have no choice but  …  It is actually more natural that a man would want to build his life with his male friends and the woman would want to build her life with her female friends” (p. 120). Also: “A man and woman are two different types of creations, not only physiologically but also spiritually and mentally  …  The most logical we can be is to warn the woman that there are areas which are limited for her, she will not succeed in them” (p. 122).

⁷A similarly mixed message is conveyed when Debow (2012, p. 245) writes about dealing with children who have come out to their parents. She says that people with a homosexual orientation are by Jewish law exempt from the commandment to get married and be fruitful and multiply. But in the next paragraph she writes: “Any homosexual who seeks to enter into a marriage with a member of the other gender is halakhically (legally) required to fully inform the potential spouse of his sexual orientation. Parents should be fully supportive and encouraging of these behaviors.”

⁸Even if the answer is yes, the questions we just posed are really not as parallel as they might first appear for two reasons: (1) sexual identity and attraction patterns are core aspects of self and (2) there is not an implied ‘mental illness’ component to the other referrals.

⁹Psychoanalysis has sometimes been referred to disparagingly as “the Jewish science.”