ALBERT ELLIS, PH. D.

on the cure of homosexuality

Donald Webster Cory, in a recent article, Can Homosexuality Be Cured? (1), as well as in his new book, The Homosexual in America (2), has some important things to say about the possibility of "curing" homosexuals. While none of Mr. Cory's statements about the difficulty of changing homosexuals into heterosexuals are clearly false or exaggerated, I still feel-as I stated in the Introduction which I wrote to The Homosexual in America-that he is unduly pessimistic in this connection. It is my contention, on the basis of my experience as a clinical psychologist and a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist, that homosexuality is definitely curable in many-though hardly allcases; and I hold, in fact, that the cure of inversion is by no means as difficult as many psychologists and psychoanalysts have made it out to be.

Mr. Cory's pessimism concerning the curing of homosexuals largely grows out of what I consider to be the quite unrealistic concept of "cure" which many writers on this subject seem to have. He notes, for example, that "there are extremely few cases on record of homosexuality ever having been cured, if by cure is meant a complete replacement of the female for the male as the desired love-object and how reliable the records of cures may be remains to be determined." This manner of defining the "cure" of, homosexuality in terms of "a complete replacement of the female for the male as the desired love-object" is, I contend, not only unrealistic, but it actually implies a mistaken concept of what is the homosexual neurosis which, presumably, the therapist is trying to "cure."

Let us get a few definitions straight first, in order that we may be perfectly clear about what we are discussing. When we talk about the possible "curing" of a homosexual, we usually imply at least two definite things: (1) that the homosexual in question is exclusively or almost exclusively oriented toward having sex relations with members of his (or

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her) own sex; and (2) that this homosexual's desires and/or behaviour constitute a distinct fixation, phobia, obsession, compulsion, or other form of neurosis.

Unless these two characteristics exclusive inversion and neurotic symptomsexist in a homosexual, it is often pointless to try to "cure" him at all, since he may not be emotionally disturbed, and may in fact be mentally sounder and healthier than his would-be psychotherapist. A man, for example, who has sex relations with other men because no women happen to be around (as when he is in prison or on a long naval cruise) need certainly not be emotionally aberrated. Nor would it appear that a man who, when living in normal society, has sex desires toward both men and women, and takes distinct satisfaction in sex relations with both sexes, is necessarily disturbed, since bisexuality would appear to be the original, biological tendency of both men and women, which is only partially eradicated in many or most of us by our fairly strict heterosexual upbringings in this culture. Bisexuality, to be sure, is quite illegal in our society (since it includes homosexual as well as heterosexual acts); but stealing is also illegal in our culture, and no one, to my knowledge, contends that all those who have the desire to steal, or actually, do so at times, are serious neurotics.

(Let me make perfectly clear at this point that a bisexual is anyone who has some sex desires, whether these be many or few, toward members of both sexes. Bisexuals do not, as is often mistakenly stated, have equal sex desires toward males and females, but may prefer one sex to another-just as a heterosexual male may prefer one woman to another.)

Individuals, therefore, who desire both heterosexual and homosexual relations may be emotionally disturbed (largely because of society's attitudes) about their bisexual desires, and may therefore need psychotherapy. Or their bisexuality may be part and parcel of a general neurotic makeup which may lead them to mattachine REVIEW

require psychoanalytic or other psychological treatment. But there seems to be nothing necessarily neurotic about bisexuality; and, in fact, as far as mere desire for sex relations is concerned, it might well be contended that men and women who at no time have any bisexual impulses are likely to be more neurotic than those who at least occasionally do have such desires.

Since our society severely criticizes and punishes the homosexual aspect of bisexual relations-see, for example, the facts on homosexuality in the Kinsey Report (4) and in my book, The Folklore of Sex (3) and since the average person's sexual desires may fairly easily be satisfied on a heterosexual rather than a homosexual basis, it may also be contended that the person who actually gives in to his bisexual desires (except quite occasionally during his lifetime) tends to be more emotionally disturbed than the individual in our culture who experiences such desires but definitely controls them. This is probably true. But the fact still remains that the individual with frankly bisexual desires is not necessarily neurotic; while the man or

woman

with exclusively homosexual desires necessarily is.

Why are exclusive homosexuals necessarily neurotic? For the simple reason that those who out of unhindred choice only desire partners of their own sex, and who absolutely cannot or will not engage in heterosexual acts are obvious-, ly victims of at least one of four (and sometimes all four) distinct neurotic symptoms. For such exclusive homosexuals would appear to have (1) a sexual fixation on members of their own sex, from which they cannot escape; or (2) a specific phobia in regard to members of the other sex which prevents them from having satisfactory heterosexual relations; or (3) an obsession about members of their own sex which drives them toward homosexual acts or an obsessive interest in members of the opposite sex which drives them toward assuming the normal role of this sex; or (4) a distinct compulsion toward having exclusively homosexual affairs. Since fixations, phobias, obsessions, and compulsions are indubitable neurotic symptoms (whether or not they are sexual in

their origin or content), it is difficult to see how any exclusive homosexual can be anything but, in one degree or another, neurotic.

It may be immediately objected, at this point, that if exclusive homosexuality implies a neurotic fixation, phobia, obsession, and/or compulsion on the part of the homosexual then exclusive heterosexuality implies the same type of neurotic traits on the part of the heterosexual. This, in fact, is exactly correct. While exclusive heterosexuality is statistically normal in our society, and while exclusive heterosexuals are rarely seriously neurotic simply because of their heterosexual leanings, the fact still remains that any heterosexual who positively cannot, under any circumstances, take any pleasure whatever in physical contact with members of his own sex is neurotically held in the vice of some fixation, phobia, obsession, and/or compulsion, and he (or she) should therefore be quite eligible for psychotherapy.

Actually, since we are all taught, in this society, that heterosexuality is the only legitimate mode of sex behaviour, many of us who become exclusively hete rosexual are never seriously bothered by our sexual rigidity. Hence (like the natives of certain primitive tribes or the citizens of certain modern dictatorships who do not become disturbed by the paranaoid thinking which is rampant, but which is culturally accepted, among them) we gratefully accept our heterosexual fixations, phobias, obsessions, and compulsions and never think of asking a psychotherapist to "cure" us of them. Nonetheless, when we are so heterosexually fixated that our sex urges can under no circumstances be satisfied by homosexual acts, then we are decidedly in the throes of a neurotic symptom-a social neurosis, if you will, but a neurosis nonetheless.

To return to the main issue of this article, the exclusive homosexual-that is to say, the individual who cannot obtain any satisfaction whatever in sex relation with members of the other sex, and who is in fact usually disgusted by them-is certainly neurotic. He may not be the most serious neurotic alive, and may be in the same class as the individual who is neurotically fixated on one

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