Homosexuality
Subtitle: a psychoanalytic study
By: Irving Bieber ... [et al.].
Contributors: Bieber, Irving, 1908-
Publisher: Aronson
Published: 1988
Place of publication: Northvale, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 358
Subjects: Homosexuality, Male; Psychoanalysis and homosexuality; Homosexuality; Psychoanalysis
Description: In his influential 1962 study, Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals, Irving Bieber characterized male homosexuality as a pathological condition and an "acquired adaptive behavior" resulting from childhood trauma. He rejected the idea of natural variation, arguing instead that a specific family constellation—primarily a "Close-Binding-Intimate" mother paired with a detached or hostile father—disrupted a boy's innate heterosexual development. Bieber maintained that homosexuality was a "crippled" response to a fear of heterosexuality, but one that was potentially reversible through intensive psychoanalysis, claiming a 27% success rate in converting patients. While his work dominated psychiatric thought for a decade and fueled opposition to the APA's 1973 declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, modern scholars now widely criticize his findings for selection bias, as his research was based exclusively on men already seeking psychiatric treatment.
Notes: Bibliography: p. 351-354.
Includes index.