Homosexuality

To the Editor:

I read Edwin Wood's article “Evolutions of an Orientation Concerning the Nature of the Male Homosexualities” (June 1995, vol. 55, no. 2) with decidedly mixed feelings. While I applaud Wood's attempt to come to terms with the changing views on homosexuality in our profession, our culture, and his own practice, I found his article woefully inadequate to the task he set out for himself: This task is to rethink the psychoanalytic party line on homosexuality he'd been fed (and swallowed) 40 years ago. It is to Wood's credit that he has moved at all from what Jonathan Goldberg in his response calls the “missionary position” that Wood was trained to have about homosexuality, but he has a long way to go before I'd be happy to have him treat anyone gay I cared about.

For example, the man in his third case example, Frank, has a history of desiring men but not wanting a “homosexual life.” Wood clearly considers it a positive that Frank wants to marry a woman again after his wife divorced him following his “too eager efforts to make a close and physical relationship” with her young adult son. Wood seems to agree with Frank that it is unfortunate that Frank's wife “would not allow time to work through” this issue with him. Would Wood have felt any differently if Frank had tried to have a physical relationship with his male lover's young daughter? Blechner (1993) has written about reversing the sexes in cases like this to see if heterosexist attitudes are present in the analysis.

In addition, Wood doesn't seem to think it important to help Frank rethink what made him marry a woman with a son he desired, or to help him live a life where his behaviors are more at one with his desires. It seems that Frank (like Wood, it appears) has a narrow view of what a gay life can be, has been repelled by what he thinks are his options (in part because of his internalized homophobia), and wants desperately to lead a straight life, no matter what that sacrifices in himself. That's fi