Psychoanalysis and male homosexuality

This thesis explores the status of homosexuality, within the history of psychoanalysis, and the effects of that status in the development of contemporary talking therapies. Focusing on homosexuality in men, the research in this study examines Freud’s theories and concepts, as the foundation of this thesis. This paper is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is a reading of Freud and his psychogenesis of homosexuality. The second chapter is an analysis of three American analysts, who interpreted Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex in a very particular way to make it fit for their purpose. According to these analysts homosexuality, in their view, is an illness in need of a cure. Their aim is to convert homosexuality into heterosexuality by conducting analysis on their homosexual analysands. Throughout this chapter I will be reinterpreting a case study of reparative therapy. The third chapter is a critical analysis of Richard Isay’s radical views of homosexuality. Chapter three will also introduce gay affirmative therapy; a therapy, which is aimed to help one come to terms with their homosexuality. In the fourth chapter I will critically analyse and compare a case study of reparative and gay affirmative therapy. My intentions of analysing these two case studies are to illustrate that: while they differ in their analytic approach, they share some similarities. The purpose of analysing these two therapies is that many homosexuals today undergo reparative or gay affirmative therapy. Freud’s conclusion, that homosexuality or heterosexuality is an outcome of the Oedipus complex, will play an important role in the discussion of reparative and gay affirmative therapy. His perceptions of how psychoanalysis should be conducted throughout analysis will also emphasis how far reparative and gay affirmative therapies have developed since from classical Freudian psychoanalysis.