Love Undetectable by Andrew Sullivan

Author:Andrew Sullivan [Sullivan, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8041-5226-6
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2014-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

BUT IF WE ACCEPT some version of this homosexual trajectory (and it seems to me the most plausible), we still have to resolve the reparative therapists’ essential point, which is that, whatever the genetic predisposition and however complex the environmental model attached to it, the result is still always and everywhere a form of sexual pathology. And without resorting to Isay’s unconvincingly crude notion of innate homosexuality, it’s not too hard to see why this may not necessarily be the case.

The first, and most obvious, problem is that the evidence for inherent pathology is largely drawn from the clients of the reparative therapists themselves. And their clients are, by their very nature, likely to be more disturbed, conflicted, and pained by their orientation than many others—and therefore more prone to pathological behavior that temporarily eases their psychic pain. They are not merely so conflicted as to seek therapy; they are so conflicted as to seek therapy from people who have publicly committed themselves to curing individuals of what they call a homosexual affliction. Once again, Freud beats us to the punch. As he wryly remarked, “Perverts who can obtain satisfaction rarely have occasion to come in search of analysis.” It would surely be somewhat dangerous to extrapolate theories about the general population from such an anguished and conflict-ridden couch.

But assume, for a moment, that the reparative therapists are exaggerating but not inventing, that they are correct in seeing somewhat higher levels of sexual pathology among gay men than among straight men: more promiscuity; more sexual objectification; fewer meaningful relationships; more repetitive, anonymous sexual compulsion. Are there factors outside the intrinsic nature of homosexuality that could explain these? Does it follow that these behaviors are necessarily a result of the very nature of the homosexual condition? Is there indeed any logical link at all between the way a sexual orientation emerges and the way it subsequently expresses itself?

Perhaps the best indicator of where the answer to these questions may be found lies in the areas where the reparative therapists are uncharacteristically silent. And these silences converge on two clear areas: the role of social and familial hostility in undermining gay children’s self-esteem, and therefore their emotional and psychological functioning, and the reparative therapists’ almost total lack of interest in the emotional and sexual development of lesbian girls and women.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.