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Homosexuality by Charles Socarides is divided into three large sections, covering theory, clinical observations, and therapy. The theoretical section discusses Freud's contributions, other contributions to the literature, the theory of preoedipal origin, classification of homosexuality, basic concepts about male and female homosexuality, specific mechanisms, the disturbance of gender role formation, and homosexuality during adolescence. The clinical section details ten cases (seven males, three females). The therapy section is devoted to discussion of diagnosis and psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic technique. In addition, there are three appendices: a follow-up interview of a patient and translations of articles by Hanns Sachs and Raymond de Saussure.
It would appear to be a particularly felicitous time for cautious interpretation of data about homosexuality, since the contemporary intellectual climate has been so stormy. Many chapters of Homosexuality, however, lack a tone of optimal critical distance in which the author's assertions are balanced by clearly summarized opposing views. The frequently polemical tone of Homosexuality is particularly unfortunate since much of the material presented is clinically interesting and useful (for example, Chapters 23, 24, and 25 dealing with technique, transference, and the analysis of regressive phenomena). Some quotations illustrating problems in tone are:
The homosexual who attempts to extricate himself from a community of homosexuals is often tagged a "traitor," who threatens to invalidate their claims of having been born that way and being "special." It is not uncommon for homosexuals to warn any individual attempting treatment that any change could at best prove only superficial [p. 5].
Homosexual women are exceedingly sensitive to being financially dependent because they regard this as a mark of inferiority. Beneath this resentment are deep feelings of guilt for their inordinate wishes to be completely sustain