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OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mattachine Society, Inc.

VID DR. BERGLER BUNGLE THE SUBJECT

IN HIS NEW BOOK, "HOMOSEXUALITY: DISEASE OR WAY OF LIFE"?

or

Is Edmund Bergler's new book, "Homosexuality: Disease Way of Life," an authentic scientific work or yellow fog upon a subject long clouded by ignorance and confusion?

In its April issue, the Review hopes to present the criticisms of several professional persons who have had first-hand experience in handling homosexual problems. But in the meantime, this comment might be appropriate for many readers who have heard of the new book through mention such as the review which appeared in TIME (Medicine, Dec. 10).

"Homosexuality is not an incurable, hereditary condition, and the homosexual way of life is not 'normal' for an unspecified segment of the population, assistance from Kinsey notwithstanding (in quoting statistics on the frequency of homosexual acts in youth)," reported the magazine, taking its Quie from Bergler's volume.

Manhattan Psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler, M.D., in "Homosexuality: Disease or Way of Life," (published by Hill & Wang, New York, 1956, $5; 302 pps.) swiftly demolished some popular misconceptions, said TIME, The discussion went on to call common definitions half-truths, and declared that certain "personality traits, partly or entirely psychopathic, are specifically and exclusively characteristic of homosexuals."

One TIME reader in New York sent a carbon of his letter to that magazine to the Review. He called TIME's judgment of the book inept: ...a mild term considering that in one place the magazine and Bergler refer to heterosexual activity on the part of would-be bisexual homosexuals as "lustless mechanical sex" and then only a few lines further along, this same homosexual has normal sexual enjoyment as a result of course of having been suitably brainwashed by Dr. Bergler or another of the licensed Freudian minions of the heterosexual thought police." (Continued on page 5 following index section)

mattachine REVIEW

Mattachine

REVIEW

index

1955-1956

1955

INDEX OF AUTHORS

1955

ADAMS, CEDRIO, A Minneapolis Father Discovers Homosexuality, Sections from column in MINNEAPOLIS STAR, May-June, p. 24.

ALDRICH, ANN, We Walk Alone, book review by Wes Knight, Nov.-Dec. p. 30.

ALLEN, LUTHER, Homosexuality--Is It a Handicap Or a Talent?, July-Aug. p. 6; The Aftermath, Nov.-Dec. p. 32; Humanity's Most Troublesome Pressure: Regulating the Sex Urge, a review of All the Sexes by George W. Henry, Nov.-Dec. p. 13; Reformers Can Be Cruel, March-April, p. 30. ANTHONY, NOEL, La Vie Parisienne, Christmas issue, ' p. 15.

BAILEY, DERRICK SHERWIN, Homosexuality and Western Christian Tradition, book review in dialogue form by Donal Norton, Nov.-Dec. p. 10.

BARR, JAMES (FUGATE'), Facing Friends in a Small Town, Jan.-Feb. p. 9; Homosexuality and the Liberal Mind, Sept.-oct. p. 18; Noblesse Oblige, and so. forth--Comments on Marguerite Yourcenar 8 Hadrian's Memoirs, July-Aug. p. 38; Release from the Navy Under Honorable Conditions, May-June, P. 6.