David sat very still. On his face was a look of closed listening, as though he heard something very far away.
Suddenly the man stood up. He rubbed his hand hard against his pants, then across his mouth. He looked down at the boy for a moment.
"So long, kid" he said, awkwardly.
David watched his back going down the hill.
Suddenly his granny's voice, querulous and demanding, drifted up to him. All around, the sky was darkening. The man was almost out of sight.
He shivered suddenly, the spell of the hill broken. It could never again be as
it was.
"Coming, granny!" he yelled.
He leaped to his feet and began to run. Toward the old woman. Toward warmth. Toward home.
DISEASE OR
WAY OF LIFE continued from page 8
somewhow managed to struggle against their neurosis, subdue it and come out into the daylight as whole and self-respecting persons have a chance at everything-love, career, hobbies and interests. They are still homosexual, with all the social problems that it entails, but at least they are given the gift of themselves.
How to do it? Some people, with the urge and the money, will try psychiatry. Most psychiatrists cannot keep their mental hands off a patient's homosexuality-no matter how poor a record of "cures" they may have to show for past attempts
-and will keep after patients with all the powerful influence at their disposal. Their efforts will usually come
to nothing, but in the process a doctor may be able to help a patient with his neurosis and this is his true value.
Of course, there are other ways of building new mental health-new experiences, job success, new friends, change of scene, removal from parents. Different things work for different people.
But the important thing, and the purpose of this article, is to make clear that mental illness, not homosexuality, makes for misery. The two have to be separated in our minds, and kept separate. For, contrary to what Dr. Bergler says, it is largely up to us whether our homosexuality will be part of a disease or part of a way of life.
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