(1998). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 46:645-648 Freud's Views on Homosexuality Ralph Roughton's review of Richard Isay's latest book (JAPA 45/1) begins as follows: “Homosexuality and psychoanalysis have had a stormy relationship…. The relationship began benignly, with Freud stating that homosexuality is neither an illness nor anything to be ashamed of, nor should it be a reason to reject a candidate for analytic training. In those days, psychoanalysis was a leading voice of reason and compassion against a repressive society. A few decades later, American psychoanalysts deemed homosexuality a treatable illness” (p. 293). Unaware of any scientific papers of Freud's that could have been the source of such attributions, I searched through every reference to homosexuality and related subjects in the Standard Edition and found nothing. At that point I wrote the editor of the Journal for assistance in locating the pertinent references. The response to my inquiry was his forwarding to me a copy of a letter from Isay saying: “Th [This is a summary or excerpt from the full text of the book or article. The full text of the document is available to subscribers.] |
