Dear Editor,
Thank you for publishing the letter by Mr Roger Williams in which he comments on SASOD’s statement on homophobia (‘Guyana’s 1998 policy statement on people living with HIV/AIDS adequately addresses non-discrimination in the health sector’ SN, 20.5.08). It is always important to identify the fears and the misinformation which is the root of prejudice. Mr Williams asserts that Freud thought homosexuality “disordered.” A 1935 ‘Letter to an American Mother’ from Freud, available from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/freud1.html is replicated here for your readers’ convenience.
“Dear Mrs…
”I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual. I am most impressed by the fact that you do not mention this term yourself in your information about him. May I question you, why you
avoid it? Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruel too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.
”By asking me if I can help, you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place.
The answer is, in a general way, we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies which are present in every homosexual, in the majority of cases it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual.
The result of treatment cannot be predicted.
”What analysis can do for your son runs in a different line. If he is unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, inhibited in his social life, analysis may bring him harmony, peace of mind, full efficiency whether he remains a homosexual or gets changed…
“Sincerely yours with kind wishes, Freud”
Mr Williams also refers to the SASOD film festival as pornographic. It is puzzling where Mr Williams gets that impression, since we have had a variety of persons – including journalists, priests, nurses – in our audience, and while there are a variety of reactions (including one walk-out from a film with an anti-abortion theme), we have never had any reaction which indicated that the films are pornographic. We hope that Mr Williams will attend to see for himself.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
