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BOOKS

Viewpoints Will Vary

A Critical Survey of the Problem of Homosexuality edited by Judge Tudor Rees and Harvey V. Usill. Macmillan, New York, 1955, 220 pages, $3.75-Reviewed by Richard Meyer of Cleveland.

For three years an unparalleled

· public discussion of homosexuality has been going on in England.. The issue on which the battle has raged is whether or not the law relating to the homosexual acts of consenting adults in private should be repealed. Catering to the popular interest, a number of books have appeared to inform or misinform the public. THEY STAND APART is likely to do a little of both.

Half a dozen contributors to this collection discuss various aspects of the homosexual problem as it exists in England and (with some modifications) in the United States. The several chapiers vary considerably in quality, in viewpoints and in the tone adopted toward the homosexual. '

Judge Rees, in his chapter on the English law, how it got that way and why it should stay as it is, finds it necessary to speak of "filthy practices", "evil pursuits", "disgusting practices" and "guilty planter of corruption in the innocent". Here in a very few pages is a real mine of misinformation about homosexuality. and homosexuals.

A similarly harsh attitude more philosophically put characterizes Vis-

count Hailsham's chapter on "Homosexuality and Society". Like Judge Rees, this distinguished lawyer and politician is convinced that the homosexual problem is primarily a problem of the corruption of the young. He believes that seduction by an older homosexual is the primary cause of the development of homosexuality in the impressionable and still undecided adolescent or young adult. If that were true and there are some experts who think so-then a heterosexual society, believing homosexuality harmful, would be justified in using every available sanction to prevent the contamination of the young. Somewhat sadly, therefore, Viscount Hailsham comes to the conclusion that the law better not be changed. He consoles himself with the thought that not many consenting adults committed homosexual acts in private get caught anyway. !

Dr. W. Lindesay Neustatter, a leading London psychiatrist, questions whether seduction alone can create a homosexual. In his somewhat meandering but generally satisfactory and sensible survey of the current state of medical and psychiatric knowledge, he is very, much aware how little is actually known. Moreover, since he is not personally committed to any particular theory of causation, he can give a fair description to all that have any possibility of validity. His treatment of the

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Freudian theories is perhaps inadequate-which some may feel is a, rather refreshing reversal of current fashion,

Dr. Neustatter inclines toward the bellef that an as yet unknown physiological element may be a prodisposing factor toward homosex uality. This is not of course necessarily in conflict with Freud-who never foreclosed the possibility of a constitutional predisposition-but it cannot be reconciled with the more rigid formulations of some of Freud's sucCessors.

Dr. Neustatter is even willing to consider the possibility that homosexuality is not a sickness at all but only a "normal variant of personality." He thinks the law should be changed as far as consenting adulis are concerned, and he adds an interesting and not unimportant detall: that importuning of one adult by another-in other words, cruising— should also not be punished.

Rev. D. Sherwin Balley in a chapter on the religious aspects suggests that homosexuality should be a matter of morality rather than legality. He too would change the law. Dr. Bailey begins his stimulating discussion with a summary of the main points of his excellent book, HOMO. SEXUALITY AND THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION. But he does not stop at that. Having demolished by hard-headed historical andlysis the major props of the Christian at:l-

tude on homosexuality-such as the Sodom and Gomorrah story-he then proceeds by a different sort of reasoning to reconstruct the very same attitude on other grounds. But Dr. Bailey is a kindly man, and he prorides several theological, though not necessarily logical, loopholes through which the homosexual may escape the consequences of his sin. Those homosexuals who have not resolved their religious doubts may find, much of interest here, for Dr. Bailey makes good reading even when he is not completely convincing.

Extracts from the 1954 Parliamentary debates on homosexuality and a useful summary of homosexual laws in various countries of Western Europe are also included in the volume.

This is a sobering book. The recommendations of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council and to a lesser extent of the British Medical Association have encouraged the belief that the Departmental Committee now considering homosexuality will propose a liberalization of the law. The final decision however will almost surely be made by lawyers, Judges and politicians rather than by psychiatrists or enlightened ministers. In the last analysis men like Judge Rees and Viscount Hailsham are apt to have greater influence than men like Dr. Balley and Dr. Neur statter. Unfortunately, that is as true. here as in England.

Monthly magazine in Dutch, Sub-

endschap scription $4 per year. Published by Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum, Postbox 1564, Amsterdam, Holland.