Sigmund freud homosexuality

I was surprised by the outbreak of homophobia which greeted the appointment of Jeffrey John, an openly homosexual man, as an Anglican bishop.

Such was the outcry at the verdict that the appointment was soon rescinded, and the cause of tolerance in church life was position back for an indefinate period. Bigots had won the day.

Freud would not have been as surprised as I was. Quite apart from his well scepticism about human progress and the veneer of civilisation which accompanies it, he lived in a time when homosexuality was itself illegal and subject to severe punishments.

Beset as it was with social disadvantages, it could hardly be a life-choice one would advocate unreservedly. Yet recognising the social disadvantages (and the psychological pain it caused to millions) his attitude displays a tolerance remarkably lacking in today&#;s furore.

Freud&#;s attitude is known from a letter he wrote to a distraught mother who had written him for counsel. He replies:

&#;Dear Mrs&#;

I assemble from your letter that your son is a homosexual&#; Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified a

Freud&#;s Effect on Christian View of Homosexuality and Its Implications

Sigmund Freud is a controversial figure. Beside his theories of the unconscious and Oedipus’s complex, many people don’t know that he played a grand role in how Christian perceived homosexuality in the s and s.

Recently, Obama announced his support for national ban on “gay conversion therapies”, but not a lot of Christians objected. Why is it worth mentioning? Because, in the s and s, lots of Christians advocated therapy to convert people into their straight sexual orientation. Why? Because they believed that homosexuality is more of a disease than a sin thanks to Freud. In the early s, Freud claimed that everyone was born bisexual. Thus, one’s childhood determined one’s sexuality, so he said. However, as time progressed, it is empirically proven that his theory is incorrect based on the amount of therapies attempting to transform one’s sexual orientation. On one hand, this explains why many Christians didn’t say anything when Obama announced the ban of these therapies. On the other hand, this also speaks about Freud’s credibility in other facets of Freud’s theories.

From what I learned in my psychology

Source: Tomas Buchan / Pixabay

May 6, marks the th anniversary of Freud’s birth. also marks the th anniversary of his publication, Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman, in which he lays out a theory about what “causes” homosexuality. Just for the register, still today, no one knows what “causes” either heterosexuality or homosexuality.

For much of the 20th century, the field of psychoanalysis was hostile to male lover people, mostly characterizing them as mentally ill. Fortunately, in the last quarter-century, organizations like the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), which I joined in , have become more “gay-friendly.” The organization's president even issued an apology to the LGBT community last year.

Yet, in attempts to find Freud’s support for contemporary, tolerant analytic attitudes, some portray him as a historic ally of gay people. In making this case, the field’s many years of anti-gay antipathy are treated as a deviation from Freud’s original attitude of acceptance. The reality, however, is more complicated.

To start, while Freud did not trust homosexuality was an illness, he did not consider it was entirely normal either. Rather than an antiso

Sin and Sexuality: Psychobiology and the Development of Homosexuality

In the fall , I was a young psychiatrist with five years of clinical experience in confidential practice. I had been certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and I felt that I grasped the basic and latest theories concerning the cause and cure of homosexuality and other so-called sexual deviations. I had been asked to participate in examining this provocative subject in a televised panel discussion on the local universal television station, KUED. In preparation, I reviewed various texts on the subject, which almost universally presented the prevailing thesis: Homosexuality is a learned habit, an illness to be treated and corrected, and can with proper therapy be cured in over 25 percent of cases. Homosexuals have failed, psychoanalytically speaking, to successfully traverse the pitfalls of psychosexual development as outlined by Sigmund Freud. To be sure, scattered reports in the literature suggested a genetic or hormonal basis for the disorder but did not convince the majority of clinicians, including myself. That panel of certainly understood, even if they did not openly discuss, that homosex

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