The psychiatric view of homosexuality has undergone a fascinating evoยญ lution in recent years. This includes not only the change from viewing homosexuality as a diagnosable illness, as opposed to an alternative life style, but also the development of considerable professional concern for providing appropriate mental health services to this previously underยญ served minority community. There has been an increasing recognition of the need for comprehensive services including, but not limited to, counseling, individual psychotherapy, and couples therapy. This book is written for the practicing clinician, and offers a compreยญ hensive survey of the important clinical issues involved in the counselยญ ing and psychotherapy of gay men and lesbian women. It is an extraorยญ dinarily practical book and its breadth and depth make it appropriate for both the novice and the experienced therapist. SHERWYN M. WOODS Series Editor ix Preface We hear our mentors but do not often heed them. Freud's supportive, nonjudgmental approach to homosexuality provided an ambience withยญ in which discoveries could be made, that is, the discovery that homosexยญ uality was not a disease of mental degeneration and that sexuality, in the sense of a fundamental human propensity to find pleasure in social and physical attachments, was at its root directed to both sexes. The adยญ herence to a nonjudgmental approach was short-lived, suffered represยญ sion by homophobic defenses, and scientific zeal was directed toward "cure" rather than comprehension of the homosexual state
CONTENT
I. New Perspectives on Theory and Practice in Psychotherapy -- 1. Psychotherapy with Gay Men and Lesbians: A History of Controversy -- 2. Reconceptualizing Individual Psychotherapy with Gay Men and Lesbians -- II. General Topics in Psychotherapy -- 3. Psychotherapy and the Dynamics of Merger in Lesbian Couples -- 4. Notes on the Management of Difference -- 5. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with Gay Male Couples -- 6. On the Analytic Therapy of Gay Men -- Chaffer 7. Group Psychotherapy with Gay Men -- III. Special Topics in Psychotherapy -- 8. Psychotherapy with Lesbian Mothers -- 9. Psychotherapy and AIDs -- 10. The Pregnant Lesbian Therapist: Experiences of a Clinician
