Edmund Bergler (1899-1962) was a American psychoanalyst, the most important theorist of homosexuality in the 1950s.

Bergler is quoted as having said, "I have no bias against homosexuality... [but] homosexuals are essentially disagreeable people ... [displaying] a mixture of superciliousness, false aggression, and whimpering, ...subservient when confronted with a stronger person, merciless when in power, unscrupulous about trampling on a weaker person." [1]

Bergler's book Homosexuality: Disease or Way of Life was cited in Irving Bieber et al's Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study. Bieber et al mentioned Bergler briefly, noting that like Melanie Klein, he regarded the oral phase as the most determining factor in the development of homosexuality. [2]

Medical view of conversion therapy

The American Psychological Association Committee on Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Concerns states that therapy to change sexual orientation is rejected by most medical and mental health associations that have taken a position on the topic, on the grounds that it is often damaging to people's well-being.[3] The American Psychiatric Association states that "ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals' sexual orientation."[4] Major organizations that reject therapy to change sexual orientation include the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Education Association.[5]

Bibliography

  1. Bergler, Edmund. (1949). The Basic Neurosis. New York: Harper and Brothers
  2. Bergler, Edmund. (1953). Fashion and the Unconscious. New York: Robert Brunner
  3. Bergler, Edmund, & Kroger, W. (1954). Kinsey's Myth of Female Sexuality: The Medical Facts. New York: Grune and Stratton
  4. Bergler, Edmund. (1956). Homosexuality: Disease or Way of Life. New York: Hill and Wang
  5. Bergler, Edmund. (1958). Counterfeit-Sex: Homosexuality, Impotence and Frigidity. New York: Grune and Stratton
  6. Bergler, Edmund. (1959). One Thousand Homosexuals: Conspiracy of Silence, or Curing and Deglamorizing Homosexuals?. Paterson, New Jersey: Pageant Books
  7. Bergler, Edmund. (1959). Selected Papers: 1933-1961. New York: Grune and Stratton

References

  1. ^ Kenneth Lewes, Ph.D., The Psychoanalytic Theory of Male Homosexuality, New American Library, 1988, ISBN ISBN 0-452-01003-9
  2. ^ Irving Bieber, Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals, Basic Books Inc, 1962
  3. ^ Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel
  4. ^ Jason Cianciotto and Sean Cahill (2006). Youth in the crosshairs: the third wave of ex-gay activism. New York: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute.
  5. ^ Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel, 1999, American Psychological Association
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