business pursuit, one pastime, one child, or one something else, but who in most other respects is relatively unfixated and well-adjusted. Or his neurosis may be a deep-seated, general disturbance, of which his exclusive homosexuality is but one symptom. Or he may be seriously aberrated because, in this society, homosexuality is so condemned and persecuted. Whatever the specific extent or depth of his neurosis in any given case, we may be certain that to some extent all exclusive homosexuals are-neurotic because, we repeat, the exclusive invert is rigidly held by some fixation, phobia, obsession, and or phobia which neurotically forces him only to desire love objects of his own sex.

The point is now-to get back to Mr. Cory's thesis that homosexuality is virtually incurable-that when we talk about homosexuals going for "cures" we normally mean exclusive homosexuals; and we should clearly realize that these exclusive homosexuals should be going for therapy not merely to be "cured,' of their homosexual desires but of their neurosis-that is, their exclusivity. Consequently, the "cure" of homosexuals need have little to do with "a complete replacement of the female for the male as the desired love-object." Such a complete replacement, in fact, might have the effect of substituting one form of exclusivity and hence of neurosis-for another!

In other words, the aim of a realistic psychotherapist, when he works with any exclusive homosexual who has come to be "cured," should not normally be to help this homosexual become exclusively heterosexual in his desires, but to help him to become unneurotically bisexual in these desires. (By the same token, neurotic heterosexuals who come for psychotherapy and who show some homosexual leanings may sometimes be aided not to become exclusively homosexual but to accept-though not necessarily act out-their bisexual desires.)

If one looks at the question of "curing" homosexuality in the light of the foregoing considerations, it will become clear that it boils down to the usual psychotherapeutic problem of helping individuals to overcome their phobias, fix-

8

ations, obsessions, and/or compulsions. Homosexuals, it is true, are difficult to treat because they derive distinct satisfactions from their neurotic (exclusive) inverted desires and acts. But, by the same token, almost all neurotics derive various satisfactions or so-called secondary or neurotic gains-from their symptoms. The main reason, perhaps, for the resistance of homosexuals to intensive psychotherapy is the lack of incentive which most homosexuals have for changing their mode of sex relations. Thus, ordinary neurotic symptoms often become so painful in their own right (as when the patient becomes overwhelmed with anxiety, guilt, psychosomatic complaints, inertia, etc.) that the neurotic has a strong incentive to go for therapy and to work hard, with the therapist, to overcome his symptoms. Homosexuals who come for therapy because their exclusive homosexuality is the main presenting symptom often do not have this incentive, since their main fear is usually of censure, and public disapproval, and they can sometimes overcome this fear by obtaining definite approval within homosexual groups and can avoid public censure by remaining discreet about their sex desires and acts. Homosexuals, moreover, have usually succeeded at having homosexual affairs by the time they come for psychotherapy, while they have often previously failed at heterosexual relations (and, indeed, sometimes have become homosexuals precisely because of such a failure). Whereas, as all of us know, it is most difficult to get even a fairly well adjusted person to give up an acquired pleasure (like eating, drinking, or smoking), even when .he is told by his physician that he is seriously impairing his health by this habit, it can readily be seen how much more difficult it would be to induce an exclusive homosexual to give up his satisfying and successful sex habits when he has no certainty that he can ever replace them by just as satisfactory and just as successful heterosexual habits,

For these (and several similar) reasons it can readily be seen why it may be more difficult to treat a homosexual than a non-homosexual neurotic. Basically, however, exclusive homosexuals are beset by phobias, fixations, obsessions, and/or compulsions; and, like

mattachine REVIEW

other neurotics, they can be successfully treated so that, at the very least, they will become less phobic, less fixated, and less obsessive-compulsive. When this is done, it is only to be expected that, in most cases, homosexuals will then become bisexuals rather than exclusive heterosexuals. For getting rid of their neurotic rigidities will simply mean, usually, helping homosexuals so that they will come to desire and can successfully have sex relations with members of the other sex. "Curing" exclusive homosexuals does not necessarily mean reconditioning them so that they will come to lose all their desires toward members of their own sex.

In some cases, of course, a homosexual's newly found ability to have satisfying sex relations with members of the other sex will become so powerful as to dwarf, or even occasionally to annihilate, his interest in his own sex. But most of the time it is to be expected that his interest in his own sex will partly or largely remain, while at the same time his newly found heterosexual interests and satisfactions are allowed to come to the surface.

It is also 'to be predicted that when psychotherapy is successful with an exclusive homosexual to the extent of allowing him to have definite desires toward and to take satisfaction with members of the other sex, and when this psychotherapy helps him to face and overcome many of his general neurotic trends, many such "cured" homosexuals will actually abstain from most or all further homosexual contacts even while still actively desiring such contacts. Well-adjusted heterosexual males, it should be remembered, often desire to have sex relations with girls under the egal age of consent; but, normally, they

manage successfully to forego putting such desires into action. Most human beings, furthermore, time and again desire to walk off with their neighbor's Cadillac, but manage, without too much travail to their souls, not to do so. By the same token, exclusive homosexuals who are psychotherapeutically helped to overcome their exclusivity and to desire other-sex partners should often be able to forego homosexual participations, not because they do not desire these, but because they may be severely penalized if they give in to their desires.

Summing up: When we talk of "curing" homosexuality we usually mean exclusive homosexuality, which is neurotic in that it invariably contains distinct elements of fixation, phobia, obsession, and/or compulsion. This type of homosexuality becomes "cured" when the exclusivity or neurotic element is largely overcome, and when the homosexual comes to desire as his love-objects members of the other sex as well as his own sex.

To expect an exclusive homosexual to make a complete reversal in his sex desires is quite unrealistic-although this will sometimes actually occur. But to get him to the point where he is no longer exclusive or neurotic about his homosexual leanings, and where because of his emotional stability he can control them in such a manner as to keep himself in minimal conflict with contemporary society (and with himself)-this is the realistic aim of modern intensive psychotherapy or psychoanalysis.

In the course of psychotherapy, the homosexual individual may also be helped to accept his homosexuality without the enormous amounts of guilt and anxiety that usually accompany inversion. But if an exclusive homosexual is only enabled, through psychotherapy, to accept his homosexuality, and if he is not in any way released from the neurotic fixations, phobias, obsessions, and/or compulsions which are forcing him to be exclusively homosexual, then very little real therapy has been accomplished, and he is still as basically neurotic as when he first came for treatment.

REFERENCES

1. Cory, Donald Webster. "Can Homosexuality Be Cured?" Sexology, October 1951, 18, 146-156.

1. Cory, Donald Webster. The Homosexual in America. New York: Greenberg, 1951.

3. Ellis, Albert. The Folklore of Sex. New York: Charles Boni, 1951.

Kinsey, Alfred C., Pomeroy, Wardell, and Martin, Clyde. Sexual Behavior in the Human MalePhiladelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1948.

Reprinted from "The International Journal of Sexology." February, 1952.

9