ABSTRACT: “Homosexuality” is used to denote a type of behavior exhibited for various reasons by different types of human beings; it does not refer to a specific pathological entity. Homosexual or bisexual men, dissatisfied with, or indirectly because of, their sexual orientation, were treated in a psychotherapy group-led by a male-female cotherapy team. Male-female group psychotherapy can foster therapeutic insight through associative resonance, can provide models, support, and reinforcement for new behavior: hetero- sexual interest and activity, increased assertiveness, identification with the male therapist, and the corrective emotional experience of simultaneous rapport with the man and the woman. Of the 66 patients in this series, almost half made heterosexuality an explicit treatment goal and remained in group therapy for 1 1/2 years or more. Of these, 85 percent experienced at least partial heterosexual shifts and 52 percent striking, nearly complete heterosexual shifts.

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*Dr. Birk is Clinical Research Director, Learning Therapies, Inc., 398 Walnut Street, Newton, Massachusetts 02160 and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Reprint queries should be directed to the author at Learning Therapies, Inc.