For the past three years, Susan C. Vaughan (currently co-chair with Gary Grossman of the American's Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues) has been traveling the country, giving papers to psychoanalytic societies and speaking to lay and professional audiences about her two recent books, The Talking Cure and Half Empty/Half Full. The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Society and Institute was fortunate this past June to have Vaughan speak at our biannual all-day meeting.
Members heard about her clinical work with analytic patients and had a chance to talk with her in a relaxed setting. We met at Gwinn, an elegant mansion on Lake Erie, a setting that permitted strolls in gardens and a leisurely lunch between talks. In addition, Vaughan spoke on “Growing Up Gay: A Psychoanalytic Perspective” at the Lesbian/Gay Community Service Center of Greater Cleveland the evening before her main talk to the society.
The Friday evening meeting at the Lesbian/Gay Community Center turned out to be a “standing room only” event, with some ninety attendees. Due to a series of mishaps, a planned flight and relaxed schedule turned into a long drive from New York City to Cleveland for Vaughan, her partner, and their daughter.
Joanne Naegele, M.A., is program chair of the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Society. She is on the faculty of the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Institute and the Cleveland Center for Research in Child Development.
She had a commitment, and she was determined to honor it. This speaks to her determination as psychoanalyst, clinician, researcher, author, lesbian, mother. It is this spirit that she brings to the American's Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues.
In her “Growing up Gay” talk, Vaughan described the early sense many children have of feeling “different,” with the eventual realization that this feeling is partly due to being attracted to the “wrong” sex. This can lead to a sense of being false or having secrets. The secrets need to be kept, but the child yearns to tell them. In adolescence there is a loss of friendships and increasing isolation as heterosexual dating begins. On average, five years elapse between the discovery of homosexual feelings and coming out.
The Saturday all-day meeting was open to the entire Cleveland Psychoanalytic Society and, for the first time, to members of the Association for Psychoanalytic Thought, a local group of psychologists, social workers, nurses, and diverse professionals who meet at the society's offices. It was a first in another way also: Vaughan spoke about analytic material and conflicts not previously explored by society members. For example, she discussed the case of a lesbian patient choosing a lesbian analyst to explore her increased heterosexual wishes. An unconscious wish of the patient was eventually understood as the hope that the therapist would not let her threaten her long-term relationship with the woman for whom she truly cared.
Photo by Mervin Stewart
The Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues has facilitated the Cleveland Institute's wish to open itself to a broader understanding of sexual orientation. In November 1997, Ralph Roughton and candidate Paul Lynch visited Cleveland as part of the American's Visiting Analyst Program. Roughton presented a paper titled “Homosexuality: Changing Psychoanalytic Perspectives.” There was a workshop and informal discussion the next day, open to the Cleveland mental health community and members of the society, at the institute's offices, where dialogue on the topic continued, followed by an open house in the late afternoon. But attendance was sparse.
By June 2000, we had learned some things. We had relationships in place with the lesbian/gay community. The institute openly sought diverse, qualified candidates — medical or non-medical; heterosexual or homosexual; people of color — and this was getting to be known within the community. We were inviting a wide range of speakers to give papers at society meetings. We had established the Association for Psychoanalytic Thought. The society had a committee in place for community outreach. Things were opening up.
During Vaughan's recent visit, she spoke of the tremendous changes within the American Psychoanalytic Association. In the past decade the American has changed from an organization that supported “reparative therapy,” with the intent of changing homosexuals to heterosexuals, to one that accepts homosexual therapists as candidates for analytic training, endorses same-sex marriage, and takes the position that reparative therapy is unlikely to be effective and can hurt people. Vaughan added that there are now about fifty openly gay or lesbian candidates in this country, reminding all analysts that we know less about sexual orientation than we thought we knew.
Where are we after Susan Vaughan's visit to Cleveland? We feel “ripples” from her visit. Friendships have been established. New co-operative ventures are afoot. A movie series with the gay/lesbian community and a support group for parents whose adolescents are struggling with sexual orientation and gender identity issues are beginning. Both events will be at the Lesbian/Gay Center.
Corrections
Holmes and Spitz Presentors at Women and Power Conference
In the last issue of TAp, the names of Dorothy Holmes and Ellen Spitz were inadvertently left off the listof speakers at the Women and Power Co nference held in Atlanta in February 2000.
Berkshires Society
TAP reported that Edward Shapiro is president of the newly forme d Psychoana lytic Society of the Berkshires. In fact, the fledgling society is only in the process of writing its by-laws and has not yet elected officers . Shap iro is currently spokesperso n for the group, not president.