I have watched the volley of letters between Drs. Ralph Roughton and Charles Socarides over the past several years, initially with anger, then with interest, and now with a sense that they are scarcely relevant to my personal and professional life. I believe that the initial fight against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation within the American Psychoanalytic Association is over and that I and other members of the organization are the winners. To continue to fight Dr. Socarides as if he were a powerful enemy is to ignore the progress that has been made.
Others might consider my feeling that we should stop fighting with Dr. Socarides to be radical; I agree that prejudice and discrimination are reprehensible and that bias in conducting psychoanalysis undermines the very foundation of the treatment itself. However, it is time for me and The American to move on, and in fact we already have. As the first openly homosexual candidate at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, I feel welcome and at home both within my institute and within The American. I feel that I have proven myself to be a good analyst-in-training, an enthusiastic proponent of the value of psychoanalysis, and an asset to my institute. Acceptance, respect, appreciation, and tolerance of differences between people and collegial friendship characterize my learning and working environment here; they enrich my life and make me happy day to day. I have learned that experience is more powerful than theory; I am not a feared or hated other at Columbia. I am just me.
I have Drs. Richard Isay and Ralph Roughton to thank for the opportunity to pursue a career in psychoanalysis at an institute of The American. The fight for acceptance had to be fought and, like all resistance to change, could not be bypassed. The American itself has allowed us to move on by responding forcefully to Dr. Socarides' many misrepresentations of official policy within The American, because it is a step in the right direction. But to paraphrase Martina Navratilova, I want to be a good analyst, not a good gay analyst. I feel we should turn our resources and energies toward aiming for the day when this is how I and other homosexual analysts within The American are seen.
Susan Vaughan