Sigmund Freud's views on homosexuality

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, viewed homosexuality, like all forms of sexuality, as being caused by a combination of biological, social and psychological factors.

Freud stated that Steinach's research had "thrown a strong light on the organic determinants of homoeroticism",[8] but cautioned that it was premature to expect that the operations he performed would make possible a therapy that could be generally applied.

In his view, such transplant operations would be effective in changing sexual orientation only in cases in which homosexuality was strongly associated with physical characteristics typical of the opposite sex, and probably no similar therapy could be applied to lesbianism.

[7][9][10] In fact Steinach's method was doomed to failure because the immune systems of his patients rejected the transplanted glands, and was eventually exposed as ineffective and often harmful.

[11] Her father hoped that psychoanalysis would cure her lesbianism, but in Freud's view, the prognosis was unfavourable because of the circumstances under which the woman entered therapy, and because the homosexuality was not an illness or neurotic conflict.

Freud concluded that he was probably dealing with a case of biologically innate homosexuality, and eventually broke off the treatment because of what he saw as his patient's hostility to men.

By asking me if I can help [your son], you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place.

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 homosexual or gets changed.

Psychoanalysis has helped overcome it in rare cases; in numerous others it succeeded in reinforcing simultaneously existing heterosexual instincts to the point where the subjects were able to live bisexually.

In every country there is a large number of such individuals who, while outside of the norm in that one point, in all others pass muster and distinguish themselves through remarkable accomplishments, as evidenced by the fact that several of the greatest men in history were homosexuals.

It is important not to overlook the fact that a certain degree of propensity toward the homosexual object is part and parcel of the constitution of the so-called normal man.