who handles these problems must drop his judgmental attitudes and not discuss homosexuality with the patient or his parents as if it were a sin. The physician should allay parental anxiety, especially with patients in childhood or early adolescence, in whom experi mental curiosity may play a large role.

If the physician believes that a real problem exists because of a conflict to be resolved, the patient should be referred to a psychi atrist for evaluation and a consideration of means of treatment. If psychiatric help is advised and the patient refuses it, the genera physician at best can only counsel him to keep out of trouble-to choose his companions discreetly, not to pick up strangers in public toilets or invite them to his home for homosexual purposes and in form him about the chances of blackmail or other entrapment and arrest. Because treatment is so difficult, only those with the greatest knowledge, training and experience should attempt it.

At times the patient will refuse even a referral for psychiatric evaluation. He may try arguments, persuasions, even threats. Often he will insist that because he has great confidence in him, the general physician continue the attempts at therapy. This places the physician in a most difficult dilemma. Sometimes he may be strongly tempted to work some magic trial of hormonal treatment or to delve into the patient's psychic apparatus. The physician would do best to withstand the temptation to an involvement that may indeed carry him away into dark seas of interpersonal relationships where even the most gifted mariners may lose their way.

It is encouraging to see that a favorite treatment of a generation ago has wanedthe attempt at cure by arranging a sexual alliance with a prostitute or a knowledgeable substitute, a device not infrequently used even by some psychiatrists. Such attempts to teach the homosexual the facts of life or to make a man of him have precipitated more than, one schizophrenic break.

The general physician, often the first to be consulted by the homosexual, must be prepared to deal at the start with cases of great psy chological complexity. Homosexuals are liable to be hostile or paranoid and to present problems bordering on addiction or psychosis. Again, however offensive the behavior, shaming or reviling has no more place in the treatment of such persons than in the treatment of any other medical condition..

It is for man to tame the chaos; on every side, whilst he lives, to scatter the seeds of science and of song. -RALPH WALDO EMERSC

They're Still At It

At a time when many clergymen are taking a more realistic and humane attitude toward homosexuality it is not suprising to find some active, conservative opposition to this révolution in religious philosophy. One such source of opposition is Teen Challenge, a street-worker project supported by a number of very fundamentalist religious groups and a few individuals. The project was begun about six years ago by Rev. David Wilkerson in an attempt to solve the problem of juvenile delinquency and drug addiction in New York City. It has since expanded to the point where there are now ten Centers in various U.S. cities and two in Canada with several more planned. It is only within the last two years that work with homophiles was begun by the San Francisco Center.

The Teen Challenge approach to homosexuality is "Repent and be Saved." One indication of the effectiveness of this approach is the fact that after making perhaps several hundred street contacts with "homosexual sinners", the San Francisco Center has managed to "free" three individuals from their "life of sin" and are currently working with two others who, presumably, want to be "saved". The technique used to effect a cure seems to be to thoroughly insulate the individual from the realities of human pleasure by means of a blind faith in God and Christ and a a program of absolute self-denial. In talking with the "converts" one of whom has been "cured" for more than six months, one gets the impression that if they were physically separated from their Bibles by more than a few feet, they would melt and run down the drain. The barrier between these individuals and reality seems to be a fragile one indeed, and it would seem probable that the failure of this barrier could provoke a severe emotional crisis. The criterion for a cure seems to be essentially chastity.

We have reprinted here a little phamphlet titled Gay and an excerpt from another phamphlet called Hope for Homosexuals, both published by Teen Challenge, in order to illustrate the naivety of their philosophy concerning homosexuality. The excerpt from Hope for Homosexuals on the technique for rerecognition of homosexuals should also provide some amusement. cognition of homosexuals should also provide some amusement.