"A patient came to me who was said to have nothing the matter with his
sexual life, but who had convulsions. I had seen him not more than three
times when I said to him: 'You are homosexual,' and I explained what I
meant. He told me that while at college he never indulged in sexual acts,
and that for this reason he used to wrestle, during which he would have
ejaculation, and he selected his partners. Unquestionably from the beginning
of his existence he was homosexual, although he was able to have sexual
intercourse with his wife, but he was compelled to marry when quite young;
he was 'prodded into it,' as he said. He came to me to be treated for
neurosis, but the neurosis was simply the result of homosexual lack of
gratification.
"We should be particularly careful not to suggest anything. I never tell a
patient that he is homosexual. Be reasonably sure that he is homosexual and
you need not hesitate to tell him so."
It all depends on what one means by "reasonably sure" or what kind of and
how much evidence one requires or demands to be "reasonably sure."
Furthermore the mass of popular Freudian literature is not by any means
hidden from the patient.
In conclusion I may remind the members of the Freudian school that it
behooves them to undergo that same self-analysis and self-scrutiny which
they justly advise others to have. If they do this in a truly critical and
impartial way they will find that the opposition which they have met has not
been without foundation. They will find that there are serious and
all-pervading flaws in their psychology and sexology, and that this is
responsible for their one-sided and distorted analyses and interpretations.
Most of the trouble will be found in the method of interpretation, flowing
out of their attitude. They will find that they have been advocating a
system of theories and conclusions which have been followed as a religion, a
cult, a creed. And they will correct the errors which are so patent to so
many of the rest of us.
It is or should be evident to him who reads between the lines and surveys
this question as from a mountain top, that there is not the slightest proof,
not one jot of testimony in support of the ideas which Dr. Coriat has given
us in his paper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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