In an April 2007 interview for the weekly Télé Moustique, the current Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, André-Joseph Léonard, was asked about his position on homosexuality and described homosexual behavior as “abnormal.” He said:
“The same as Freud: it is an imperfectly developed stage of human sexuality which contradicts its inner logic. Homosexuals have encountered a blockage in their normal psychological development, rendering them abnormal. I know that in a few years, I will risk prison by saying this...”
As a man who formerly suffered greatly with same-sex attraction, I completely concur with the Archbishop's assessment and reference to Freud. But, this got me thinking: what did Freud actually propose concerning the origins of homosexuality:
1. Homosexuality arises as a result of the Oedipus conflict and the boy’s discovery that his mother is ‘castrated’. This produces intense castration anxiety causing the boy to turn from his castrated mother to a ‘woman with a penis’.
2. In the “Three Essays,” Freud (1905) theorized that the future homosexual child is so over-attracted to his mother that he identifies with her and narcissistically seeks love objects like himself so he can love them like his mother loved him.
3. If a ‘negative’ or ‘inverted’ Oedipus complex occurs, a boy seeks his father’s love and masculine identification by taking on a feminine identification and reverting to anal eroticism.
4. Finally, homosexuality could result from reaction formation: sadistic jealousy of brothers and father is safely converted into love of other men.
2. In the “Three Essays,” Freud (1905) theorized that the future homosexual child is so over-attracted to his mother that he identifies with her and narcissistically seeks love objects like himself so he can love them like his mother loved him.
3. If a ‘negative’ or ‘inverted’ Oedipus complex occurs, a boy seeks his father’s love and masculine identification by taking on a feminine identification and reverting to anal eroticism.
4. Finally, homosexuality could result from reaction formation: sadistic jealousy of brothers and father is safely converted into love of other men.
Here, we implicitly see Freud's reliance upon his theories of psychoanalysis. Inherit within this process of mental excavation into childhood memories and experiences, is a commitment to long and often treacherous sessions delving straight through the sometimes uncomfortable past. With the advent of the feminist movement and the introduction of “the pill” culture of the late-1960s and early-70s, Freud was reassessed as a grumpy misogynist; and most opted for a quick pharmaceutical fix rather than the tedious and gut-wrenching work of self-examination and introspection. Then in 1973, any inquiry into the origins and treatment of homosexuality became tantamount to gay-bashing when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from it's list of mental disorders. Nowadays, the quest for the why of someone's orientation has been replaced by a full acceptance of every deviation. Gays are thrown-out into a world, usually at a young age, and told to find their own path to happiness amongst an every growing subculture of various sexual perversions. Instead of discovering the healing they so desire, they most often reemerge battered and abused: half-dazed and wondering where their innocence went. The hurt from childhood is still there, but now its compounded by feelings of loss and disappointment.
Freud has the psychological part right: that homosexuality emerges from an early childhood trauma; but I would like to fuse Freud with Christianity; for the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Way in which the victim can summon the strength to face that which lies buried in the subconscious. Those that currently strike-out at this holy Archbishop, deep-down, know that he is speaking the Truth. And they are angry and scared.