REPORT ON

CHANGING ATTITUDES

TOWARD HOMOSEXUALITY

A Los Angeles audience recently had the very rare treat of hearing an INTELLIGENT public lecture on the much-abused subject of homosexuality.

Baltimore psychoanalyst, Dr. Robert M. Lindner, author of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, STONE WALLS AND MEN and PRESCRIPTION FOR REBELLION rounded out a lecture series on psychiatric problems with a highly original handling of this most controversial of themes.

Criticizing the harmfully inaccurate public concepts of homosexuality (which, he noted, were improving) he stated that little is accurately known about the some three million male homosexuals in America. He described the case of a man who had spent a tormented life avoiding self-recognition as a homosexual, and said that at least this type

of homosexual, perhaps the general rule a few years ago, had now become the exception, due to at least partial public enlightenment. He commented on general tendencies toward effeminization of the male in America, while stipulating that "homosexuality and femininity have nothing to do with one another."

He concluded with a discussion of homosexuals as a minority group, beginning, like other minorities, to develop group consciousness and culture. He described a Homosexual World Organization which had been set up in the Far East, giving something of the history of that and similar Oriental groups of homosexuals banded together for mutual assistance.

It is hoped that the text of this lecture will shortly appear in print.

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.....

BOOK REVIEW

Grune & Stratton, New York, 1944

Robert M. Lindner, Ph.D.

Subtitled "The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath," this book submits the results of forty-six hours of hypnoanalysis and therapy, using as a subject a male inmate of an Eastern penitentiary. The report itself is prefaced by six short introductory chapters in which the author presents his views of criminal psychopathy, and outlines his own psychoanalytic methods.

Homosexuality does not appear to be an initial factor in the criminal career of the patient and the homosexual theme is not at all dominant in his experience as a whole. However, the revelations of the patient under hypnosis include many references to homosexuals and homosexual practices in prisons.

The experiences of the patient during early childhood years are drawn out and examined with considerable care. Severe pre-adolescent sexual maladjustments are pointed out which have a direct bearing upon the social frustrations of the patient during later periods. Inferentially, these same maladjustments can be seen to have a potential relationship to the development of the homosexual bias, even though such a bias did not actually occur in this particular case.

The patient's history is a direct transcript of the words of the patient himself. The interpretations of the therapist are not prominent except in the closing chapters, and they are interpretations which the student of psychology will find already familiar. However, the book is remarkable for its lucid presentation of the relationship between defects of personality and character, and sexual maladjustments. It is also quite remarkable for the author's deep and sympathetic insight into psychological problems in general, and for his judgment concerning corrective methods. Despite its rather remote connection with homosexuality, no thoughtful homosexual would fail to be benefited by a careful study of this documentary.-Robert Gregory

27