One psychiatrist's view of female homosexuality∗

Abstract

There is a tendency to stereotype the views of psychoanalytic psychiatrists on homosexuality. Many of them-a majority of those who have written at length about it-have taken the position that homosexuality is an illness and that it, of necessity, requires treatment. In this short paper I want to make it clear that I am expressing only my own ideas and that they do not agree with the majority of those in my profession. I think my own experience in regard to female homosexuality has been a somewhat unique one. Perhaps because of this I might be able to shed some light on the subject from a particular vantage point. What gives me this special position is that in 1957 I wrote a book called Voyage from Lesbos. This was the first and to my knowledge the only book that described in detail the psychoanalytic treatment of a girl who was an overt homosexual. The book received a good deal of publicity and had a rather large sale in hard cover and paper-back. During the first year after its publication, I had somewhere between five and ten consultations, all initiated by the parents of women who were homosexual. None of these came to see me very willingly. All of them seemed to be quite happy being homosexual. None of them wanted to be treated. Then, as now, I saw treatment as based on some subjective discomfort in the individual. So none of these people went into treatment either with me or with someone else. As a matter of fact, the girl I wrote the book about did not come into treatment because of her homosexuality. She was not upset about that. Rather she came to see me because of anxiety, headaches and insomnia. Besides this patient only two other female patients who indulged at all in overt homosexual behavior remained in long-term psychoanalytic treatment with me. This, I think, is quite remarkable in view of having been considered an experte' in the field. I have had