Psychoanalytic Theory of Male Homosexuality - Softcover

Lewes, Kenneth

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9780452010031: Psychoanalytic Theory of Male Homosexuality

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452010039 ISBN 13: 9780452010031

Publisher: Plume, 1989

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Chronicles the changing psychoanalytic position on male homosexuality, tracing the evolution of psychoanalysis from a human discipline to a calcified orthodoxy and the emerging disinterest of psychoanalysts in homosexuality

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From Publishers Weekly:

Lewes's definitive, rewarding survey demonstrates that the idea of homosexuality as a form of illness owes a lot more to Freud's successors than to Freud himself. The father of psychoanalysis held that everyone has an inborn bisexual potential; he saw homosexuality as a constitutional disposition triggered by psychosocial factors in childhood. Freud's early followers were tolerant of gays, but by the 1930s, notes the author, the psychoanalytic establishment defined homosexuality as a perversion linked to narcissism or paranoia, said to limit one's personal and creative potential. When Kinsey published his 1948 report showing how widespread male homoerotic activity was, neo-Freudians largely ignored it. In private practice, many shrinks adopted an abusive, condescending tone toward gay patients, according to Lewes. A clinical psychologist, he believes that nearly all psychoanalytic studies of male homosexuality are based on too small or nonrepresentative samples. Unfortunately, his study excludes a discussion of lesbian behavior. Even so, it represents a major step in the psychoanalytic profession's reassessment of its own attitudes and practices.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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