How psychiatrists view

the homosexuality issue

Dear Dr. Menninger:

I'm surprised that no one in the psychiatric profession has stuck his neck out to counter åll the antihomosexual feeling now prevalent.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was my impression the American Psychiatric Association characterized homosexuality as being a maladaptation such as being left-handed. This was four years ago. Has there been any change?

LIBER

In other words, WHO says homosexuality is an illness or an immorality?

Sincerely, M.R.

It would be nice if a simple clarifying statement would quell some of the intense fervor surrounding homosexuality. But I suspect that is only wishful thinking.

Yes, four years ago, in a referendum, the majority (58%) of the American Psychiatric Association supported a decision to remove. "homosexuality" from the list of diagnostic labels of mental disorders.

Another 38% disapproved that action; so a sizeable number of psy~ chiatrists still wish to consider exclusive homosexuality as a mental disorder, even though it is no longer iden tified as such in the formal diagnostic and statistical manual of the APA.

and

As far as homosexuality morality are concerned, a large segment of adherents of fundamentalist and Catholic faiths cite chapter and verse of the Bible or papal edict to mark homosexuality as immoral. Homosexuality is an emotional issue,

and current fervor over this issue is far out of proportion to its significance or real scope.

It's really somewhat ludicrous to think that an issue like homosexuality will bring out more people to the voting booths than truly serious and significant community matters. Realistically, homosexuality is nowhere near the potential danger to society or to our children as portrayed in the scare rhetoric of Anita Bryant or Rev. Ron

Dr.

Walt

Menninger

cultures condemn the practices. Kinsey found 60% of the men and 33% of the women he interviewed admitted some form of homosexual behavior by age 45; 37% of the men and 13% of the women had such an experience after puberty which ended in orgasm. Only 4% of Kinsey's respondents identified themselves as exclusively homosexual.

Most students of human sexuality believe that exclusive homosexuality

'Realistically, homosexuality is nowhere near the potential danger to society or to our children as portrayed.'

Adrian (who led the Wichita "Concerned Citizens for Community Standards").

As Sigmund Freud observed, students of human nature have long taught us that we are mistaken in regarding our intelligence as an independent force and in overlooking its dependence upon the emotional life.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in discussions about homosexuality, where so many people have their minds made up.

What are some of the facts? Throughout history, recognition. The ancient Greeks idealized it. Anthropologists report 49 present-day primitive societies accept it in more or less restricted forms; 28 similar

is not inherited but rather results from conflicts going back to early childhood experiences with mother and father as representative female and male objects. Further, most homosexuals are not so by conscious choice.

Dr. Judd Marmor, former president. of the American Psychiatric Association, has summed it up this way: "Neither homosexual nor heterosexual sex-object choice in human beings is innate or instinctual, but both represent learned behavior. We must conclude that there is nothing inherently sick or unnatural about life experiences that predispose an individual to prefer homosexual sex objects except insofar as this preference represents a socially condemned form of behavior in our culture."