London’s Museum of Sexology has unearthed a largely forgotten letter penned by Sigmund Freud in 1935 in which he makes his views on homosexuality quite clear.
Responding to a mother’s concern over having a gay son, Freud writes that it’s “nothing to be ashamed of,” and that it “cannot be classified as an illness.”
He references noted gay people throughout history — Plato, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, assuring the mother that, “It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime – and a cruelty, too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.”
The letter eventually ended up in the possession of Alfred Kinsey, and was published in a 1951 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry. Since then it has largely remained a footnote.
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Here is the original letter:
It reads:
Dear Mrs [Erased],
I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual. I am most impressed by the fact that you do not mention this term yourself in your information about him. May I question you why you avoid it? Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them. (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime – and a cruelty, too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.By asking me if I can help, you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies, which are present in every homosexual in the majority of cases it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual. The result of treatment cannot be predicted.
What analysis can do for your son runs on a different line. If he is unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, inhibited in his social life, analysis may bring him harmony, peace of mind, full efficiency, whether he remains a homosexual or gets changed. If you make up your mind he should have analysis with me — I don’t expect you will — he has to come over to Vienna. I have no intention of leaving here. However, don’t neglect to give me your answer.
Sincerely yours with best wishes,
FreudP.s. I did not find it difficult to read your handwriting. Hope you will not find my writing and my English a harder task.
h/t Pink News
1EqualityUSA
Wow. Pat Robertson was only five when his mamma started working on him?
QJ201
Try an accurate headline
ORIGINAL COPY found
the text of this letter has been taught in psych and human sex college courses for DECADES.
Tackle
That is amazing at how progressive minded, and forward thinking regarding homosexuality Freud was in 1935. And I love that he said, ” Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage. ” He’s correct. It’s no advantage, and no disadvantage. It just is. And that pic shows him to be a nice looking older man. He had to have been an absolute stunner as a young man…
Kieran
1EqualityUSA: “Wow. Pat Robertson was only five when his mamma started working on him?”
I know he probably considers that a clever dig at Robertson. In reality, it just comes across as a pathetic example of internalized homophobia. Attempting to insult our ignorant homophobic enemies by accusing them of being gay themselves is basically saying, “ha ha, you’re as bad as us.”
ingyaom
This is news? This letter is well-known… and Freudian analysis has long been discredited, anyway.
Nixter
This is old news,. Although the tone of the letter seems accepting, nonetheless, Freud still referred to homosexuality as an “an arrested form of development” and of “no advantage”??!
machuffin
@Nixter: yes, “no advantage”. What “advantages” does being gay bring to you??
Arconcyyon
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Billy Budd
Freud was right about a FEW things, like this one. And wrong about MANY other things. He has been fully discredited in many areas.
DuMaurier
@Nixter: This was 1935. How much research had been done on the subject, how old was the field of psychiatry itself? You could also bring up the fact that he’s rather equivocal about whether homosexuality can be “cured”–but come one. Look at it in context–the amazing thing about the letter is how current it sounds, and how clear Freud is that the best course is for the son to find “harmony, peace of mind”, even as a gay man. How many people were saying stuff like that then?
enlightenone
@Tackle: “That is amazing at how progressive minded, and forward thinking regarding homosexuality Freud was in 1935.”
The letter does contradict itself and is hypocritical at times as well. I trust that threw a couple more reads, you will be able to pick them out?
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Probably on a coke high when he wrote it!
He ruminated about homoerotic tensions between himself and one or other of his associates IIRC
NoCagada
@machuffin: I don’t have to listen to women have fake orgasms
blackberry finn
@QJ201: Richtig! It’s included in _Three Essays_ translated by Strachey.
tfree33
is anyone wondering how a letter written in 1953 was published in a magazine in 1951?
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@tfree33: He’d have a helluva fucking job writing it then, seeing as he was dead by late 1939. Lie back unt tell me vhy zis number 53 ist so significant to you…
1EqualityUSA
Kieran, It is because Pat Robertson is so vehemently anti-gay that he protests too much. I think the man is latent and that is why he is so hateful towards us.
enlightenone
“@1EqualityUSA: “I think the man is latent and that is why he is so hateful towards us.”
NOT at 91!
Nixter
@Nixter: Gender flexibility for one. Straight men have no such freedom. We don’t need the burden to be married. Those two are the main ones.
ChgoReason
The guy was strung up on coke and dreamt of doing his ma’. Suddenly he understands human behavior.
TomMc
@QJ201: Indeed.
jtroi
The smarter than you guys that sit in their chairs and have never done any research are so quick to point out that Freud’s theories have been discredited, forgetting the fact that psychologists spent fifty years trying to discredit his theories. Freud was a monumental intellectual and his ideas have shaped the course of the field. And yes, the letter is amazing in how modern it reads.
TampaBayTed
@QJ201: Read this letter from Dr. Freud some 40 years ago in graduate psych class. Nothing new here, just discovery of the original letter.
MarionPaige
Last I read, there was an organized group of people determined to keep Freud’s personal papers (in their possession) private. As one commenter has observed Cocaine use amongst the early founders of psychology was rampant. There has even been speculation about Freud having sexual relations with a relative.
Do gay people really need to dig up a dead addict for validation?
enlightenone
@MarionPaige: “Do gay people really need to dig up a dead addict for validation?”
No, especially if it’s semi-validating and NOT at all affirming, as the letter in its entirety shows!
Tackle
@MarionPaige: What proof do you have to support or show that he was an addict? Maybe he and others of his kind in that era dabbled in Cocaine, but I don’t think that would make one an addict. One can be an occasional drinker of alcohol,but that would not make them an alcoholic. I can enjoy a good stogie every once in awhile, but that would not make me a smoker. I can go on with this, but you get where I’m coming from. Can you site or reference something please for this claim of addiction??
MarionPaige
It seems a lot of people in “the profession” are convinced that the real facts about Freud’s life (his cocaine addition, his sexual relations with a much younger cousin etc) would damage the profession. It almost makes psychology more of a religion than a science. But then, White Queens are so grateful for crumbs of validation from anything “mainstream”, they will even embrace a f-king Freud.
enlightenone
@MarionPaige: “But then, White Queens are so grateful for crumbs of validation from anything “mainstream”, they will even embrace a f-king Freud.”
Or some “celebrity” coming out of their self-imposed “closet” 5 minutes ago and awarded, celebrated, and anointed for it!
Disciple
In all honesty the hatred of homosexual coupling and copulation and the thought process that leads to it is new, in many of the ancient societies it was a non issue.. in some it was frowned upon but by many it was not a black and white issue or frowned on in the least.
Look at the Romans the Greeks the many Native American, South American and African tribes. Freud was spot on in pointing out the greats of history and that it was simply a normal part of the sexuality spectrum.
A great deal more can be found through research, here is a piece relevant to my statements.
It is sad how far we have fallen, we had been progressing in the past then got hit with a big bag of stupid in the induction and acceptance of many theocratic cults some of which are still mainstream to this day.
Disciple
@Disciple: http://www.quora.com/LGBTQ-History/What-civilizations-accepted-open-homosexuality