Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals Of Sexual Identities

"Disorienting Sexuality" is the first book by psychoanalysts to bring the methods and critiques of feminism, gay and lesbian scholarship and postmodernism to bear on psychoanalytic theories of sexuality. This collection of papers exposes the biases against gay men and lesbians in psychoanalytic theory and practice, examines the clinical implications of these biases, deconstructs psychoanalytic theory of both homosexuality and heterosexuality and offers new directions for theory.
In the introduction, Domenici and Lesser draw a brief history of anti-homosexual sentiment in psychoanalysis, ending with a call to psychoanalysis to revitalize itself as a mode of treatment. The book then moves into essays written by lesbian and gay psychoanalysts seeking to have a voice in the reshaping of psychoanalytic theories of sexuality. Some critique the theory behind anti-homosexuality and others consider the role this bias plays as well as the harm it does gay and lesbian patients. New theoretical and clinical approaches that are responsive to the needs of gay and lesbian patients are proposed. The second section is devoted to presenting different theoretical perspectives for understanding both homosexuality and heterosexuality. These papers offer diverse perspectives--including Freudian, relational, hermeneutic, interpersonal, social-constructivist and postmodernist--creating a multi-textured dialogue about sexuality within psychoanalysis.
"Disorienting Sexuality" concludes with the personal narratives of gay and lesbian psychoanalysts. These stories, which provide contemporary perspectives from those just entering the field as well the historical perspective of those who have beenpracticing for many years, reveal the extent of anti-homosexuality in psychoanalytic training and practice and how it has affected lesbian and gay analytic candidates and patients.
Contributors: Mark Blechner, Lee Crespi, Muriel Dimen, Thomas Domenici, Jack Drescher, Martin Stephen Frommer, Stephen B. Goldman, Ronnie C. Lesser, April Martin, Maggie Magee, Robert May, Diana C. Miller, Noreen O'Connor, Richard Rutkin, Erica Schoenberg, Roy Schafer and David Schwartz.