Survey of Psychoanalytic Literature on Overt Male Homosexuality

The psychoanalytic investigation of homosexuality was initiated by Freud in 1905 in the Three Essays. Until then homosexuality was mainly considered a constitutional variant. Freud described homosexuality as a deviation in the choice of the sexual object. After a stage of early strong mother fixation the homosexual leaves this attachment behind, identifies with his mother, and takes himself narcissistically as his love object. Strong castration fear and retention of the erotic significance of the anal zone were also recognized as important factors leading to inversion. In 1915 Freud stressed the predominance of archaic and primitive psychical mechanisms in homosexuality. Aside from consideration of the vicissitudes of the sexual drives in the origin of homosexuality, the role of the aggressive impulses in the genesis of inversion was discussed even prior to the formulation of the new dual instinct theory. Structural concepts and ego psychology have been applied more and more to homosexuality.

The problem of classification of homosexuality has been a difficult one. A division of homosexuality into different types according to manifest behavior was attempted several times but has not been generally accepted. Freud essentially came to the conclusion that homosexuality represents an inhibition and dissociation of the psychosexual development, one of the pathological outcomes of the oedipal period. The analytic literature does not disclose any single genetic or structural pattern that would apply to all or even a major part of cases of inversion. Overt homosexuality