Gay freud

I was surprised by the outbreak of homophobia which greeted the appointment of Jeffrey John, an openly homosexual man, as an Anglican bishop.

Such was the outcry at the decision that the appointment was soon rescinded, and the cause of tolerance in church life was insert back for an indefinate period. Bigots had won the day.

Freud would not have been as surprised as I was. Quite apart from his adj scepticism about human progress and the veneer of civilisation which accompanies it, he lived in a time when homosexuality was itself illegal and subject to severe punishments.

Beset as it was with social disadvantages, it could hardly be a life-choice one would advocate unreservedly. Yet recognising the social disadvantages (and the psychological pain it caused to millions) his attitude displays a tolerance remarkably lacking in today&#;s furore.

Freud&#;s attitude is known from a letter he wrote to a distraught mother who had written him for advice. He replies:

&#;Dear Mrs&#;

I harvest from your letter that your son is a homosexual&#; Homosexuality is assuredly

Source: Tomas Buchan / Pixabay

May 6, marks the th anniversary of Freud’s birth. also marks the th anniversary of his publication, Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman, in which he lays out a theory about what “causes” homosexuality. Just for the log, still today, no one knows what “causes” either heterosexuality or homosexuality.

For much of the 20th century, the field of psychoanalysis was hostile to gay people, mostly characterizing them as mentally ill. Fortunately, in the last quarter-century, organizations like the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), which I joined in , have become more “gay-friendly.” The organization's president even issued an apology to the LGBT community last year.

Yet, in attempts to find Freud’s support for contemporary, tolerant analytic attitudes, some portray him as a historic ally of gay people. In making this case, the field’s many years of anti-gay antipathy are treated as a deviation from Freud’s original attitude of acceptance. The reality, however, is more complicated.

To start, while Freud did not feel

Jed Brendon-Tullett

Perhaps there once was a time when you could happily wet the bed, play with your faeces or your sister, barge into your parents bedroom without knocking and still grow up to be a relatively pulled-together human being unburdened by the weight of repressed guilt. Perhaps. But such a golden age was certainly dead by the turn of this century: killed by Sigmund Freud () who sat, Svengali-like, with notebook in hand behind the famous couch in Vienna.

As a noun he too wet his bed and disturbed his parents during a post-luncheon session (he was so upset by his father’s yells that he came back later and defiantly urinated on the floor whilst his incredulous parents looked on, speechless) and then spent the greater part of his remaining eighty years of life trying to convince everyone that infantile sexuality was at the root of all subsequent adult neuroses. His ghost has hovered over the potty ever since.

Peter Gay is Sterling Professor of History at Yale and used to be well-known and respected in university circles for his elegant and erudite books on the Enlighte

Freud: A Life for Our Time

March 28,

Peter Gay's biography of Sigmund Freud--Freud: A Life for Our Time--is a deeply researched and far-reaching examination of one of the most provocative and influential thinkers of the modern era. Gay weaves three strands together with great skill: Freud the man, husband, father and friend; Freud the intellectual originator of a comprehensive theory of how the human mind works (including its component forces); and Freud the leader of a professional movement, psychoanalysis, as its preeminent practitioner and indefatigable defender of central psychoanalytic principles and practices.

Freud the man comes across as a fascinating composite of passions, quirks, loyalties, and, in the main, strengths. He wasn't born to wealth, certainly not to privilege, and made his way into medicine despite the antisemitic counterforces of the day, which were substantial. He was widely read, loved Shakespeare and Goethe and of course, Sophocles. He kept up an extensive correspondence that--like his published writing--reflects a powerful mind at ease in the fields