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The Chairman opened the panel by questioning whether there is significant progress today in the way psychoanalysts deal with hiv-aids patients, and whether there are changes in the way we understand this illness and its evolution from a theoretical point of view.
She noted that psychoanalytic knowledge of hiv-aids patients has increased since the epidemic was discovered fifteen years ago. Experience at the Psychosomatic Hospital in Paris, the Hospital Pierre Marty, shows that if major differences do exist in hiv-aids patients, they are linked to the varying characteristics of their psychosomatic structure and mainly to the characteristics of their psychic organisation. Homosexual patients appear to be very different from each another based on these distinctions. The disease still poses a shock both for patient and analyst, but the fear of imminent death is no longer so present as medical treatment in western countries has led to an increased hope of life expectancy.
The second point Debray made was a problem that concerned the National aids Association for Research (ANRS) in France over non-compliance in the medical treatment of hiv-aids patients who are under tri-therapies. In her view this association has until now worked very much against a psychological or psychoanalytical approach. They feared possible revelations about homosexual characteristics that could lead to conflicts with the homosexual community. By saying this she was really demonstrating the very strong and at times hostile feelings that characterise the relationship between the homosexual and the psychoanalytic community. After these opening words Debray called on Peter Hildebrand to address the audience.
In his presentation, entitled ‘Sexuality in the age of aids', Hildebrand started by offering the general framework of freedom of expression regarding sexuality in which aids had sprung in the West. He emphasised the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the opportunity to declare and to act o