No need exists, it is argued, for a new psychoanalytic theory of homosexuality. Certainly psychoanalysis should not be expected to generate such a theory using its own methodology alone. The preoccupation with producing such a theory avoids more important questions about psychoanalytic theory building raised by an examination of the long relationship between psychoanalysis and homosexuality. These questions concern the problems related to using psychoanalytic methodology (1) to construct categories (including the categories normal and abnormal), (2) to construct causal theory (the problems include the limitations of psychoanalytic developmental theory and a long-standing confusion between psychoanalytic developmental theory, psychoanalytic genetic reconstruction, and psychodynamics), and (3) to identify “bedrock.” Finally, the question is addressed of what might be needed that is new in the psychoanalytic approach to homosexuality.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bagemihl, B. (1999). Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity. New York: St. Martin's Press.
2.
Bayer, R. (1981). Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
3.
Bieber, I. (1988). Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.
4.
Blum, H., ED. (1977). Female Psychology: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Views. New York : International Universities Press.
5.
Burch, B. (1993). Heterosexuality, bisexuality, and lesbianism: Rethinking psychoanalytic views of women's sexual object choice. Psychoanalytic Review80:83—99.
6.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
7.
Chasseguet-Smirgel, J. (1984). Creativity and Perversion. New York: Norton.
8.
Cooper, A.M. (1987). Comments on Freud's “Analysis Terminable and Interminable.” In On Freud's “Analysis Terminable and Interminable,” ed. J. Sandler.London: International Psychoanalytical Association , pp. 127—146.
9.
Corbett, K. (1996). Homosexual boyhood: Notes on girlyboys. Gender & Psychoanalysis1:429—461.
10.
——— (1998). Cross-gendered identifications and homosexual boyhood: Toward a more complex theory of gender. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry68:352—360.
11.
Dimen, M. (1995). On “our nature”: Prolegomenon to a relational theory of sexuality. In Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals of Sexual Identities, ed. T. Domenici & R. Lesser, New York: Routledge, 1995, pp. 129—152.
12.
Domenici, T. (1995). Exploding the myth of sexual psychopathology: A deconstruction of Fairbairn's anti-homosexual theory. In Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals of Sexual Identities, ed. T. Domenici & R. Lesser, New York: Routledge , 1995, pp. 33—64.
13.
Ferenczi, S. (1914). The nosology of male homosexuality (homoerotism) . In First Contributions to Psychoanalysis, transl. E. Jones. New York: Brunner/ Mazel, 1952, pp. 296—318.
14.
Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Standard Edition7:130—243.
15.
——— (1910). Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood . Standard Edition11:63—137.
16.
——— (1913). The claims of psycho-analysis to scientific interest . Standard Edition13:165—190.
17.
——— (1920). The psychogenesis of a case of homosexuality in a woman. Standard Edition18:147—172 .
18.
——— (1925). Some psychical consequences of the anatomical distinction between the sexes. Standard Edition19:248—258.
19.
——— (1937). Analysis terminable and interminable. Standard Edition23:216—253.
20.
——— (1940). An outline of psycho-analysis. Standard Edition23:144—207.
21.
Friedman, R. (1988). Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective. New Haven: Yale University Press.
22.
——— & Downey, J. (1995). Internalized homophobia and the negative therapeutic reaction. Journal of the Academy of Psychoanalysis23:99—113.
23.
Goldsmith, S. (1995). Oedipus or Orestes? Aspects of gender identity development in homosexual men. Psychoanalytic Inquiry15:112—124.
24.
Grossman, W., & Kaplan, D. (1988). Three commentaries on gender in Freud's thought: Prologue to the psychoanalytic theory of sexuality. In Fantasy, Myth and Reality: Essays in Honor of Jacob A. Arlow, ed. H. Blum, Y. Kramer, A.K. Richards, & A.D. Richards.New York: International Universities Press, 1988, pp. 339—370.
25.
Hartmann, H. (1950). Psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child5:7—17.
26.
——— & Kris, E. (1945). The genetic approach in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child1:11—30.
27.
Hook, S., ED. (1959). Psychoanalysis, Scientific Method and Philosophy. New York: New York University Press.
28.
Horney, K. (1927). The flight from womanhood. In Feminine Psychology ed. H. Kelman.New York: Norton, 1967 , pp. 54—70.
29.
Iasenza, S. (1995). Platonic pleasures and dangerous desires: Psychoanalytic theory, sex research, and lesbian sexuality. In Lesbians and Psychoanalysis: Revolutions in Theory and Practice, ed. J. Glassgold & S. Iasenza.New York: Free Press, 1995, pp. 345—373.
30.
Isay, R. (1989). Being Homosexual: Gay Men and Their Development . New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
31.
——— (1996). Becoming Gay: The Journey to Self-acceptance. New York: Pantheon.
32.
Janicki, A. (1998). Cleveland looks at gay/lesbian issues. The American Psychoanalyst32(3):38—39.
33.
Jones, E. (1926). The early development of female sexuality. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis8:459—472.
34.
Kernberg, O. (1986). A conceptual model of male perversion. In The Psychology of Men: New Psychoanalytic Perspectives, ed. G. Fogel, F. Lane, & R. Liebert, New York: Basic Books, 1986, pp. 152—180.
35.
Kleeman, J. (1977). Freud's views on early female sexuality in light of direct child observation. In Female Psychology: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Views, ed. H. Blum.New York: International Universities Press , 1977, pp. 3—27.
36.
Klerman, G. (1990). The psychiatric patient's right to effective treatment: Implications of Osheroff v. Chestnut Lodge. American Journal of Psychiatry147:409—418.
37.
Kubie, L. (1978). Symbol and Neurosis: Selected Papers of Lawrence S. Kubie, ed. H. Schlesinger.New York: International Universities Press, 1978.
38.
Lewes, K. (1995). Psychoanalysis and Male Homosexuality. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.
39.
Magee, M., & Miller, D. (1997). Lesbian Lives: Psychoanalytic Narratives Old and New. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press .
40.
May, R. ( 1995). Re-reading Freud on homosexuality. In Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals of Sexual Identities , ed. T. Domenici & R. Lesser.New York: Routledge , 1995, pp. 153—166.
41.
Michels, R. (1984). Psychoanalytic perspectives on normality. In Normality and the Life Cycle: A Critical Integration, ed. D. Offer & M. Sabshin.New York: Basic Books, 1984, pp. 289—301.
42.
Moore, B., & Fine, B. (1990). Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts . New Haven: Yale University Press .
43.
Morgenthaler, F. (1984). Homosexuality, Heterosexuality Perversion, transl. A. Aebi. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press, 1988.
44.
Moss, D. (1997). On situating homophobia. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association45:201—215.
45.
O'Connor, N. (1995). Passionate differences: Lesbianism, post-modernism and psychoanalysis. In Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals of Sexual Identities, ed. T. Domenici & R. Lesser.New York: Routledge, 1995, pp. 167—176.
46.
——— & Ryan, J. (1993). Wild Desires and Mistaken Identities: Lesbianism and Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press.
47.
Phillips, S. (2001). The overstimulation of everyday life: I. New aspects of male homosexuality. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association49:1235—1267.
48.
Rapaport, D. ( 1960). Psychoanalysis as a developmental psychology . In The Collected Papers of David Rapaport, ed. M. Gill.New York: Basic Books, 1967, pp. 820—852.
49.
——— & Gill, M. (1959). The points of view and assumptions of meta-psychology . In The Collected Papers of David Rapaport, ed. M. Gill.New York: Basic Books, 1967, pp. 795—811.
50.
Ricoeur, P. (1986). Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation . New Haven: Yale University Press .
51.
Roughton, R., & Margolis, M. (1996). Letter to the editor. New York Times, October 10, 1996.
52.
Sandler, J., & Sandler, A.-M. (1983). The “second censorship”: “The three box model” and some technical implications. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis64:413—425.
53.
Schafer, R. (1995). The evolution of my views on non-normative sexual practices. In Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals of Sexual Identities, ed. T. Domenici & R. Lesser.New York: Routledge,1995, pp.187—202.
54.
Schuker, E., (1996). Toward further analytic understanding of lesbian patients. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association44(suppl.):485—510.
55.
Schwartz, D. (1995). Current psychoanalytic discourses on sexuality: Tripping over the body. In Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals of Sexual Identities, ed. T. Domenici & R. Lesser.New York: Routledge, 1995, pp. 115—148.
56.
Sophie, J. (1987). Internalized homophobia and lesbian identity. Journal of Homosexuality14:56—65.
57.
Stoller, R. (1977). Primary femininity. In Female Psychology: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Views, ed. H. Blum.New York: International Universities Press, pp. 59—78.
58.
Tyson, P. (1994). Bedrock and beyond: An examination of the clinical utility of contemporary theories of female sexuality. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association42:447—467.
59.
——— & Tyson R. (1990). Psychoanalytic Theories of Development: An Integration . New Haven: Yale University Press .
60.
Vaughan, S. (1999). The hiding and revelation of sexual desire in lesbians: The lasting legacy of developmental traumas. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy3(2):81—90.
61.
Willick, M. (1990). Psychoanalytic concepts of the etiology of severe mental illness. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association38:1049—1081.
62.
——— (2001). Psychoanalysis and schizophrenia: A cautionary tale. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association49:27—56.
