Still Some Doubt in Lesbos

Reviews the book, Voyage from Lesbos: The Psychoanalysis of a Female Homosexual by Richard C. Robertiello (1959). In simple, readable, and unpretentious language, except for the theoretical interpretations, the author describes the essential features of Connie's (the lesbian's) history bef...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Contemporary psychology 1960-04, Vol.5 (4), p.123-123
Main Author: HOOKER, EVELYN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Early Experience
History
Human
Lesbianism
Psychoanalysis
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Reviews the book, Voyage from Lesbos: The Psychoanalysis of a Female Homosexual by Richard C. Robertiello (1959). In simple, readable, and unpretentious language, except for the theoretical interpretations, the author describes the essential features of Connie's (the lesbian's) history before entering analysis and the vicissitudes of her experience in the four years of analysis. The dream progression, a large part of the book, is fascinating. The voyage is a stormy one as Connie struggles with heterosexual wishes which evoke anxiety and fear, and, through cycles of recurring homosexuality, is finally able to renounce it and achieve heterosexuality. The most serious additional criticism of the book is that, while ostensibly a case history of a single homosexual girl, the text does, in fact, become a treatise on homosexuality. Generalizations such as the following should be viewed with caution and doubt: (1) "homosexuality is the symptom of an illness;" (2) it is caused by "certain traumatic experiences in childhood," and (3) "it is not a matter of choice but of compulsion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
ISSN:0010-7549
DOI:10.1037/006286