Thus there are many ways in which the practices and ethics of psychoanalysis sit more easily with the politics of liberal individualism than with identity-based politics or anything queer, and this may be one aspect of why psychoanalysis has often found itself so uncomprehending of gay and lesbian lives, and especially of the centrality of coming out, that is, making public rather than keeping things private or secret. It would be interesting to know what the different parts of the psychoanalytic profession make of the current progressive legislation, civil partnerships, adoption rights and the like, or whether, as in the case of The Wolfenden Report, important sections of the profession lag far behind current social changes.
References
Davenport-Hines, R. (1990) Sex, Death and Punishment. London: Collins.
Fonagy, P., Krause, R., Leuzinger-Bohleber, M. (eds.) (2006) Identity, Gender and Sexuality: 150 years after Freud. London: IPA.
Govrin, A. (2004) Some Utilitarian Influences in Freud’s Early Writings. Psychoanalysis and History, 6(1) 5 – 21.
Higgins, P. (1996) The Heterosexual Dictatorship: Male Homosexuality in Post-War Britain. London: Fourth Estate.
Horsfall, A. (1988) ‘Battling for Wolfenden’ in Cant, B. and Hemmings, S. (eds.), Radical records, 30 years of Lesbian and Gay History. London: Routledge.
Isay, R. (1985) ‘The Analytic Therapy of Homosexual Men’ in The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Vol. 40. Yale: Yale University Press.
Johnson, D. (2006) The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbian in the Federal Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.