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The title of Richard Friedman's monograph, Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective, does not do justice to the author's accomplishment, which is a thorough and comprehensive critical review of the nature, causes, and some of the consequences of the phenomenon of male homosexuality, going considerably beyond the psychoanalytic point of view of the title. Friedman confines himself to homosexuality in men, and, although thus limiting his scope, he also is acknowledging, at least implicitly, that female homosexuality, which has generated much less interest and investigation, may have dimensions that make it significantly different from its male counterpart.
Friedman does not undertake the daunting task of defining homosexuality. He uses the term to include four behavioral components: erotic fantasies, sexual activities with others, perceived sense of identity, and social role. His discussion is organized under four headings dealing successively with biopsychosocial, psycho-pathological, developmental, and theoretical aspects of male homosexuality.
The first section starts off with a review of what is known about biological influences on sexual orientation. In spite of occasional alarums and excursions to the contrary, no simple hormonal measurement of this multidetermined human characteristic exists or is likely to be found. However, the research of Dorner and others on neuroendocrine influences offers some promising leads that need to be pursued. An important finding suggests that diminished androgenization of the brains of male fetuses during a critical prenatal period may set the stage for the complicated life course that results in a homosexual, rather than heterosexual orientation. There is convincing evidence that early in life the prehomosexual child often displays a different pattern of behavior than other children. He is less “male,” to the extent that maleness is associated with rough-and-tumble play, and he displays less overt aggressivene