THERAPEUTIC HOPE FOR HOMOSEXUALS

New York Academy of Medicine says psychiatry may produce beneficial changes

Homosexuality is a disease and, as such, “it may be treated with im-provement and success in some cases,” says the New York Academy of Medi-cine in a special report.

Conceding that therapy is difficult and that the prognosis must be guard-ed, the Academy’s public health com-mittee has urged prompt correction of what it calls the common misconception that treatment is useless. The effective-ness of therapy depends on the depth of entrenchment of the perversion, as well as the strength of the patient’s de-sire to modify it, reports the commit- tee, which is headed by Dr. Frederick R, Bailey.

The Academy committee stresses that the medical profession homosexu-ality and what can be done about it. “Yet, relatively little has been pub-lished about it in the medical and health journals, and there have been still fewer authoritative statements of position.”

Homosexuals, if not more numerous today, are at least “more open and obtrusive” than they were in the past, according to the report. It points out that homosexuals seem to be more formally organized, with a magazine and central office of their own. “They are determined to be accepted not as lawbreakers, sinners, or even as sick people, but as a different kind of peo-ple leading an acceptable kind of life.” Beyond that, the committee says, homosexuals claim that theirs is a “noble, preferable way of life, and the perfect answer to the problem of pop-ulation explosion.”

Countering this point of view, the report says that homosexuality ful-fills all the requirements to place it in the category of illness. It terms the homosexual an emotionally immature individual who has not acquired a formal capacity to develop satisfying heterosexual relationships. “Conse-quently, overt homosexuality may be an expression of fear of the opposite sex and inability to accept adult re-sponsibility, such as marriage.”

Quick to take issue with the Acad-emy’s description of homosexuality as psychopathologic was the Mattachine Society, one of the groups that promote homosexual causes. A director of the Society, Dr. Wardell B. Pomeroy— who is a co-author of the Kinsey Re- port—said: “I believe people can have homosexual relations and not be emo-tionally ill.” He added that, in his view, homosexuality as such is not the cause of mental illness, although it may be a symptom.

Early Influences Stressed

In discussing the causes of homo-sexuality, the Academy report notes that there is, at present, more solid in-formation about environmental factors than constitutional determinants. "The disposition toward deviant sexual be-havior is actually formulated very early in a child’s life, and the child’s rela-tionship with his parents is very signi-ficant.” Important disturbing influ-ences are childhood neglect, rejection, overprotection, and overindulgence. “Homosexuality is often associated with a fatherless home or its equiv-alent—an absent or neglectful father— or a dominant mother with a weak, in- effectual mate.

“Accurate diagnosis of homosex-uality may be difficult unless there is admission or incontrovertible evidence," the report states. “It should be noted that mannerisms and characteristics of a person do not per se warrant a diagnosis of homosexuality.”

Psychotherapy offers “the greatest probability of benefit. As evidence that therapy can produce positive results, the report cites a study by Dr. Irving Bieber and his associates. They found that of a group of 106 male homosexuals who received psychoanalytic treatment, 27% achieved a heterosexual orienta-tion, The Academy concurs with Dr. Bieber’s conclusion that these results “argue in favor of a more optimistic outlook than is held by others.”

Citing a widespread need and de-sire for proper and authoritative sex education, the Academy deplores the contradictory views on the subject that hold sway. “Whereas America seems to have a preoccupation with sex as a symbol, examination of this preoccu-pation reveals a superficial, immature, and artificial attitude toward sex, But when attempts are made to have soci-ety become more mature on this sub-ject, a surprising resistance arises.

“The argument most commonly ad-vanced is that sex education belongs in the home. But if the home is not pro-viding it, where will it be given?"