FEATURES HIGH GEAR/FEBRUARY 1977

Vintage clothing, furs, accessories

DRESS UP!

belladonna

1834 Coventry Rd. Apt. #6

Wed. Sat. 11-6

932-2532

Zipper Bookstore

725monroe toledo

11:30 A.M.-1 A.M.

7 days a week

New On Coventry

debris

an obscure location

for unusual art objects

by Toby Price

collectibles, practicals, memorabilia, old clothes, antique china, old prints, lace, linens,

one-of-a-kina irems & gitts

Special things for special people

DO YOU HATE YOURSELF?

By LEON STEVENS

On January 25, a group of two women and three men spoke to a class of medical students at Case-Western Reserve University on homosexuality. The course was conducted by Dr. Stephen Levine, a psychiatrist at CWRU. He began the two-hour presentation with a gay-positive lecture followed by brief talks by his guests and a question-andanswer period.

While the guests were pleased with Dr. Levine's lecture, they were somewhat taken aback when he concluded the session by asserting that most homosexuals suffer from painful selfhatred and implied that gay liberationists do not accurately portray the paranoia of the vast majority of homosexuals. In the same breath, Levine assailed Frank Kameny, one of the founders of N.Y. Gay Activists Alliance for challenging the field of psychology.

As one of the slightly embarrassed guest speakers, I'm prepared not to let Dr. Levine have the last word. All American minorities, bar none, suffer from some degree of self-hatred. Much sociological and psychological ado has already been made about black selfhatred as a result of slavery, Jewish self-hatred as a result of European anti-Semitism, selfhatred among women as a result of the Western sexual caste system. Every Pole who is asked "why does it take twelve Polacks to screw in a light bulb' must feel at least some mild depreciation of his/her ego.

The fact that many of the radical leftist leaders of the tumultuous sixties were descended from wealthy Anglo-Saxon families indicates that even successful Aryan Americans suffer from guilt and self-indictment. There is no reason that gays should be any different.

Self-hatred is hardly grounds for singling out gays, even closeted homosexuals as "disturbed" individuals. Selfhatred is not peculiar to gays. It is an American tradition ever as much as the "melting pot" syndrome. If gay self-hatred is to be considered a pathological entity so must gay athlete's foot, gay back ache, gay cancer and gay diarrhea.

Self-hatred among gays is a social issue, not a clinical problem. Gay leaders have the right to represent the gay experience to non-gays as much as black leaders or religious leaders are entitled to represent their respective minorities.

2800 Mayfield #208 Black leaders are, after all,

(above Pet World)

Wed. thru Sat. Noon to 6 or by appointment 464-0981

WE BUY & SELL

black. Religous leaders are, in the final analysis, the custodians of their faiths and gay leaders are, believe it or not, "gay as coots."

As ambitious as any straight

10% DISCOUNT WITH THIS AD psychologist may be, she can

never hope to interact with the gay community and the gay psyche as can a resourceful and enterprising gay activist. The

handful

of

of traumatized homosexual individuals an average psychologist is likely to come in contact with can hardly represent or objectify the conditions and Weltanschaungs of the broad masses of gay people. It is true that in spite of the failure traditional psychoanalysis and the eccentricities of some postJungians, psychology has made some significant contributions to human self-awareness. Nevertheless, psychology is properly a ward of philosophy. IT IS NOT AN EMPIRICAL DISCIPLINE! Its modes and directions are based largely upon the speculations and conjectures of great historical "psychologians."

It is unfortunate that many gays use their gayness as a scapegoat for all of their problems. They imagine that if they were straight, they would find an ideal lifetime mate with whom they could sit near a warm hearth with two laughing children, a kitten, a MacIntosh pipe and colorful knitting. They imagine that the lack of a relationship or an unstable one, coupled with emotional turmoil which may also interfere with their job etc. is traceable to their homosexuality. Psychologists

tend to add fuel to this distortion by focusing even closer on their paranoia over being gay.

Frank Kameny was correct in challenging the credibility of contemporary psychology. Electro-shock medievalism practiced by psychologists in our lifetime defies the humanist ethics of modern science. To a consider-.

Page 6

able extent, psychology, as a field, manifests the behavior it purports to heal.

As an undergraduate, I elected a beginning course in psychology at Case-Western Reserve University. When our class was polled as to why we were studying psychology, the overwhelming majority of students, not taking the course to satisfy distribution requirements, said they were interested in psychology because they felt it would help them solve personal problems. No doubt, a large number of psychologists have entered their field as the result of a deep-seated disturbance which they hope to resolve secretly with first-hand information and training. This observation is given credence by the fact that the greatest number of suicides occurs in professions related to medicine. And among doctors, as unlikely as it may seem, the highest rate of self-inflicted mortality is found among psychologists.

Because it is a highly subjective non-science, psychology reflects the values and opions of its social matrix and since its more popular tenets are reckoned to be as concrete as those of physics or medicine, it can become an effective and dangerous tool of the state. No wonder, for example, that Soviet dissidents are now hospitalized by Russian psychologists rather than imprisoned or that until recently psychologists here have carried out Yahweh's wrath against homosexuals. Even today some prominent metaphy-