The Course of Gay and Lesbian Lives: Social and Psychoanalytic Perspectives (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture) - Hardcover

Cohler, Bertram J.; Galatzer-Levy, Robert M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226113035 ISBN 13: 9780226113036

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2000

Synopsis

We live in a society obsessed with tracing the cause of homosexuality. Is there a gene that can be identified? Or do the origins lie outside of biology in the cultural context of childhood or adolescence? Most importantly, should we care about any of these questions?

Drawing on their own work with gays, lesbians, and bisexuals as well as other pertinent studies, psychoanalysts Bertram J. Cohler and Robert Galatzer-Levy have written a groundbreaking work that examines how psychological development and clinical intervention as well as social and historical change across generations contribute to how we think about sexuality. The authors argue that there is little support for assuming that homosexuality has a biological basis. Recognizing the many pathways that lead to same-gender sexual orientation, the authors conclude that the cause is much less important than understanding the meaning of being homosexual. They consider the destructive nature of an intolerant society that fosters so-called conversion psychotherapy and stress the importance of helping to rebuild a sense of coherence and personal integrity among homosexuals.

About this title

Review:

At the cross-section of social science and psychoanalysis, this new contribution to the Chicago Sexuality, Gender, and Culture series offers a dense and illuminating history of psychoanalytic opinion and practice regarding homosexuality. Sidestepping the current scientific obsession with determining biological or societal causes for variant sexual desire, the authors focus on the meaning of being homosexual and the ways that therapy can help gay patients rebuild their egos after a lifetime of prejudice--much of it on the part of their doctors and analysts. While the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1973, essentially concurring that gayness should no longer be considered a mental illness, psychoanalytic theory continues to regard homosexuality in the same light as Dr. Freud did at the turn of the 20th century. The Course of Gay and Lesbian Lives was written for therapists, scholars, and advanced students of psychoanalysis. --Regina Marler

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0226113035
• ISBN 13: 9780226113036
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 552