Theoretical and Clinical Aspects of Overt Male Homosexuality

In his introduction, Herman M. Serota stated that overt male homosexuality would be examined primarily from the point of view of ego psychology. This constituted the first panel exclusively devoted to the subject although two previous panels of the American Psychoanalytic Association had considered perversions in general.2 The rising incidence of overt homosexuality in urbanized cultures adds some importance to our considerations. He then detailed the topics for discussion as follows: (1) a historical survey of the literature on overt male homosexuality; (2) the structure and meaning of the homosexual love object, characteristics of the homosexual ego, the clinical appearance of the pathology, and the meaning of the fantasies that are acted out in this entity; (3) the genetic psychic determinants for overt homosexuality; and (4) therapeutic problems in the psychoanalysis of overt male homosexuals. He recalled that Robert Waelder's paper on "The Therapeutic Scope of Psychoanalysis"3 had already touched on the question of criteria for analyzability of homosexuality, and might serve as an introduction to it.

A detailed historical survey of the psychoanalytic literature on overt male homosexuality was then given by George H. Wiedeman. The many and varied contributions summarized by Wiedeman could be profitably reviewed under seven different headings. Beginning with constitutional versus environmental factors, he recalled that the point of departure for any study of homosexuality and perversions in general was Freud's "There Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" published in 1905. Until then heredity had been considered the decisive etiological factor and an inborn predisposition was considered paramount in these individuals. Freud expressed quite clearly