Posted by pseudoname on December 30, 2005, at 17:54:01
—Slightly re-arranged excerpts from New York Times obituary (Dec 28 2005)—
Charles W. Socarides (sock-uh-REE-dees), a well-known psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who maintained publicly, long after it was considered scientifically acceptable to do so, that homosexuality was a condition amenable to treatment and even to conversion to heterosexuality, died on Sunday at Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York. He was 83 and lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The cause was heart failure, his [fifth*] wife, Claire Alford Socarides, said.
In his writings, public appearances and private practice, Dr. Socarides argued that homosexuality was a "neurotic adaptation" that in men stemmed from absent fathers and overly doting mothers. He estimated that he had helped 35 percent of his gay patients to "become heterosexual" and a slightly smaller percentage to control their gay impulses.
A frequent guest on television talk shows and news programs, Dr. Socarides wrote a half-dozen books about homosexuality. They included "The Overt Homosexual" (1968) and "Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far"–A Psychoanalyst Answers 1,000 Questions About Causes and Cure and the Impact of the Gay Rights Movement on American Society (1995).
In 1992, Dr. Socarides helped found the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. The primary mission of the organization, of which he was a past president, is "to make effective psychological therapy available to all homosexual men and women who seek change," according to its Web site.
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*He was divorced 3 times and had (I think) a 10-year common-law marriage with a fourth partner.Full article with photo at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/28/nyregion/28socarides.html (Registration required)
The article mentions that his son Richard Socarides is openly gay and was an advisor to the Clinton administration on gay issues. They "managed to sustain a relationship, in part because both men refrained from discussing their work."
I wasn't sure where to post this (Politics? Social?), but Socarides insisted that homosexuality was a MEDICAL problem, so maybe his death can figuratively mark an end to that line of thinking?
poster:pseudoname
thread:593528
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051221/msgs/593528.html