believe that this is far from the case, even apart from the question of the morality of sex acts. These relationships are as intricate as human relationships usually are, and they cannot be rudely broken off without doing serious damage to the personality of the patient and to his friends.

Finally, there is the matter of telling a homosexual person to reject emotionally his entire youth, to regret experiences which may have been as rewarding as any that human beings ever have. The notion that homosexuals do not "really" love, have fun, and work creatively together is simply silly. To make the rejection of half a lifetime the condition of successfull therapy is to foredoom the treatment of the more intelligent. imaginative, warm-hearted, creative, and sincere section of the exclusive homosexuals.

We may sum up by saying that an exclusive or nearly exclusive homosexual orientation probably results from a neurotic emotional blockage of some sort, usually learned in childhood. A neurosis as such is in some degree harmful; and if it can be opened up to the light of reason, it should be so opened. A homosexual who has had the courage to face the essential fact about himself should have little trouble facing this one. It does not follow from the neurotic nature of his inhibition that he is perverse, "bad," any more than such a conclusion would follow from the fact of any of the others of the thousands or neuroses that make up the personalities of most

of us. It likewise does not follow that a reasonably well adjusted homosexual should rush to just anybody in the psychiatric business to begin re-weeping the tears of childhood and clawing apart his personality at great and expensive length. At least not without considering whether the same three or four thousand dollars and three or four years of effort might not be better spent on education, research, travel, a better house in a more appealing place, or some other constructive project.

I am not arguing against homosexuals undergoing well-conceived psychotherapy even the imperfect therapy of our own day. I do argue that it is possible, in illconsidered treatment, to raise three neuroses where one grew before and to upset an adjustment which limits the effects of a neurosis so that the neurosis may affect, cancer-wise, the whole personality. I do think that if one considers therapy it is more reasonable to approach it with the idea of releasing an inhibition produced by some unfortunate childhood situation than to think that one must face one's doctor in full conviction of sin and perversion, the better to generate the necessary hysterical "desire" for salvation. And I agree completely with Rodney Garland. in The Heart in Exile, that the selection of the proper psychiatrist is of crucial importance. If the proper psychiatrist is not available, then a reasonably well-adjusted person had best heave a sigh and forego therapy.

DO YOU KNOW AN ATTORNEY? If so, please send us his name and address. We often have inquiries from those needing legal services, and would like to have names in ALL areas.

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