Comments on: READ: Sigmund Freud’s 75-Year-Old Rejection of Conversion Therapy

By: Captain Slappy

Captain Slappy — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:42:34 +0000

Freud called it bullshit while he was snorting coke lines off the back of an illegally HOT cuban chick.

Also-

You can’t convert inherently stupid.
It is like trying to convert lead into gold.
It never works. Stupid.

The real issue is not some doped up asshole and what he thought.
It is stupid. That is the issue.
(HINT HINT)

By: ricky

ricky — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:33:26 +0000

laura z. hobson used this letter in her novel consenting adults.

By: Fitz

Fitz — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:57:38 +0000

It’s too hard to take too much of a position on Freud’s position, all this time away– he moved and grew and retreated 100 times. BUT… even if you are critical of him– if you think that your childhood affected who you became, then on some level you are a Freudian. That was all NEW thinking when he brought it forward.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:48:04 +0000

The fact that heterosexuals are not the least bit embarrassed or ashamed of themselves for treating their very own gay children the way that they do would make it appear that HETEROSEXUALITY is the REAL issue.

When do they finally deal with their own character flaws instead of blaming and abusing their gay children?

By: Keith Kimmel

Keith Kimmel — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:38:48 +0000

Never have seen this before, thanks for posting it, Queerty. Its hard to belive that some people (who consider themselves to be quite intelligent) still dont understand things that this guy knew way back in 1935. Most of his ideas have been debunked, but he was one of the first to challenge alot of established lines of thought. He was pretty couragious when you consider the times he operated in.

By: hardmannyc

hardmannyc — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:44:25 +0000

Hardly new to anyone who has studied Freud, but nice to post it to remind people about this famous letter. Yes, Freud had a very enlightened view of homosexuality especially considering his time. He also had a lively correspondence and a great respect for Magnus Hirschfeld.

By: Jon B

Jon B — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:48:51 +0000

Interesting. That letter is included on a Wiki about Freud’s views on homosexuality. I was under the impression that Freud thought that homosexuality was caused by a stunting of emotional development.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:45:30 +0000

Following the link “via” in the margin between the two pages, I find:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2.....hamed.html
“The letter was later passed on to Alfred Kinsey and reproduced in The American Journal of Psychiatry in 1951, hence the attached note.”

I am confident that the editors of AJP in 1951 were familiar with Freud’s handwriting, and would have vetted the letter for both source and content prior to publishing it.

A letter from Freud was indeed published in AJP in 1951. See, http://ajp.psychiatryonline.or.....107/10/786 But I am not a subscriber to that journal, and do not have that issue in my collection.

By: cgd

cgd — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:35:40 +0000

Sadly, this is not a rejection of conversion therapy.

By: Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:12:08 +0000

Where did the letter come from?

Very interesting, if indeed real.