Against the grain? When gay men counsel other gay men

Abstract

The intrinsic variability of the erotic object in Freud's account of sexuality yields a means of engaging with the humiliation of male homosexuality in this or any other time. However, because most psychoanalytic theory post-Freud has refused to attend to this variability, and has provided moral and intellectual succour to die homophobia of our culture, the gay psychodynamic counsellor is faced with particular problems of clinical comportment in his dialogue with gay men. The article has four parts. The first outlines its rationale. The second focuses on male same-sex behaviour, the historical nature of the category of homosexuality and instances of homophobia. It is argued that homophobia can be written into theory, as the case of Kleinian thought demonstrates. The third part begins with a reflection on Freud's conception of deferred action and its implications for our understanding of psychic development. It is proposed that all outcomes of the Oedipal struggle are ‘normal’ - a circumstance having crucial implications for the conduct of psychodynamic counselling with gay men. Also, the ethical principles guiding the author's practice are enumerated and clinical material cited for the purpose of illustration. The last part offers general conclusions.