PSYCHOANALYSIS AND SEXUAL DISORDERS: HOMOSEXUALITY
I would like here to discuss the problem of homosexuality, since it is the primary form of perversion in analytic theory, since it is the area of disordered sexuality receiving the greatest psychoanalytic interest and scrutiny, and since it is an area of particular controversy at this time. Moreover, it provides a paradigm for considerations of the psychoanalytic treatment of sexual disturbances.
In focusing specifically on the dynamics of homosexuality, the general paradigm of the perversions is applicable, but we will have to note the peculiar factors in patterns of homosexual behavior. The first important point is that there is not one form of homosexuality but many forms, so that one can speak more accurately of homosexualities in the plural rather than in the singular. The patterns of homosexual behavior express varying patterns of underlying motivations that differentiate the early developmental vicissitudes characterizing each individual’s early sexual experiences and maturation.
Second, it is important to realize that even relatively normal individuals are capable, under certain forms of stress, frustration, and disappointment, of developing patterns of perverted behavior, for example, an isolated episode of homosexual behavior after a threat to the patient’s father’s life, or the emergence of homosexual behavior in prison or barracks life. In such circumstances we cannot maintain that the individual has developed a new pathological propensity, but rather that some latent disposition in the organization is the personality has been activated by specific external circumstances or forms of psychic stress. For sexual orientation, it is a basic postulate which Freud embraced and which has been maintained consistently in analytic thinking since, that human beings are essentially bisexual, that is, that they have as inherent components of their libidinal organization both heterosexual and homosexual inclinations. These inclinations are shaped, modified, reinforced, and directed progressively through the years of development by important developmental experiences, particularly those relating to the child’s parents.
While analysis has consistently maintained that the normal developmental progression leads toward establishing a mature and mutually satisfying heterosexual relationship, it also has strongly maintained and insisted that homosexual elements even in the most successful development of heterosexual capacity remain as an inherent and abiding component of the personality. This applies equally to both sexes. Consequently, only homosexuality in the homosexual is regarded as reflecting a failure in the essential steps leading toward that heterosexual resolution. In the analytic view, to the extent that heterosexual adjustment is not achieved, it is a form of developmental failure or psycho-pathology. This does not in any sense infer that homosexuals are incapable of orgastic experience, nor does it mean that they are incapable of affectionate relationships with other human beings. That is to say, the dynamics of perversion simply as such do not exclude these capacities, but the question of how frequently such capacities are actually attained by homosexual individuals remains a matter of doubt and debate.
The available data on the quality of homosexual relations are by no means satisfactory. Certainly the frequency of pick-ups and one-night stands among homosexuals is not reassuring. However, if one chooses to make a comparative argument, the data from the heterosexual side are not altogether reassuring either. The level of casual sexual encounters, the current epidemic of venereal diseases, and the alarming divorce rate all are cause for concern and reflect a general defect in the capacity for enduring, mutually satisfactory, and fulfilling relationships. Those who argue for the normalization of homosexuality tend to emphasize that a homosexual libidinal disposition does not necessarily exclude more mature forms of affectionate involvement and expression. But the fact remains that homosexuality is a perversion and as such, rides on a substructure of some kind of developmental defect. The degree of psychopathology in any given homosexual obviously reflects the extent to which early fixations have come to dominate developmental experience. The earlier such fixations take place, generally the more severe the degree of pathology and the greater the incapacity to sustain satisfactory relationships.
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