Deprsn Is Killg Gay Men | Psychology Today

Contents:

• ISSU ARISG PSYCHOTHERAPY WH LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR PATIENTS
• DEPRSN IS KILLG GAY MEN
• LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS CLEVELAND, OH
• LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS SILVER SPRG, MD
• LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS OAKLAND, CA
• GAY THERAPY, GAY THERAPISTS, GAY TREATMENT
• LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS INDIANAPOLIS, IN

ISSU ARISG PSYCHOTHERAPY WH LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR PATIENTS

In many ways, the practice of psychotherapy wh lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) patients do not differ om treatments ed wh heterosexual, genr nformg, and cisgenr patients. In this article, the abbreviatn LGBT is ed as shorthand for a wi range of inti, sometim wrten as LGBTQQI+, meang lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, qutng, and tersex, wh the + ditg that the list do not leate all possible sexual and genr inti.

A lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr inty is evably lked to multiple inti: child, parent, spoe and/or partner, siblg, profsnal, employer, employee, ngregant, patient, or if a patient’s LGBT inty is not the primary foc of treatment, s impact on the urse of treatment should not be unrtimated or overlooked.

DEPRSN IS KILLG GAY MEN

However, this attu may overlook the fact that growg up lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr is a different cultural experience than growg up heterosexual and cisgenr.

Mory StrsThe LGBT muny is not a homogeno group.

LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS CLEVELAND, OH

As one gay patient put , “We are the only mory group born to the enemy mp” (14). Lendg support to that observatn is the fact that 30% of homels youths are LGBT, most often rultg om beg forced out of their home or feelg a need to n away om home bee their sexual orientatn, genr inty, and/or genr exprsn are not accepted (15) the nsequenc of wispread negative attus toward LGBT dividuals, is not surprisg that they may be unable to acknowledge to themselv, or reveal to others, any homoerotic feelgs, attractns, or fantasi.

Clil prentatns related to beg the closet n vary severy, om the ls tense se of a young adult man nsirg the possibily that he might be gay to more severe maniftatns, which any ht of same-sex feelgs ris totally out of nsc awarens. Stayg the closet is sometim done for relig reasons; at other tim is due to personal choice, such as an dividual’s efforts to mata a stable, heterosexual, cisgenr Out of the ClosetGay people the pre-war years, then, did not speak of g out of what we ll the “gay closet” but rather of g out to what they lled “homosexual society” or the “gay world, ” a world neher so small, nor so isolated, nor, often so hidn as “closet” impli.

—Gee Chncey (18)In ntemporary age, “g out of the closet” means tellg another person that one is lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr. Comg out to onelf as lbian, gay, or bisexual may prece any sexual ntact or may occur durg a sexual moment. Herdt and Boxer (20) have scribed g out as a rual procs of passage requirg a lbian, gay, or bisexual person to unlearn prcipl of sentialist heterosexualy, unlearn stereotyp of homosexualy, and learn the ways of LGBT culture.

LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS SILVER SPRG, MD

OutgWhat me to be lled outg—clarg closeted public figur to be gay—was... The fantasied beliefs are often enabled, sometim even enuraged, by clicians who believe that two people talkg a room have the necsary tools to disver the origs of eher homosexual or transgenr realy, any “” rema unknown (26).

In the se of lbian, gay, and bisexual people, the etlogil narrativ take three forms: theori of normal variatn, theori of pathology, and theori of immatury (14, 30). Theori of pathology fe a homosexual or bisexual orientatn or a transgenr inty as psychopathologil, a disease or abnormal ndn that viat om blogilly pretermed heterosexual, cisgenr velopment. Theori of normal variatn regard homosexualy and transgenr prentatns as phenomena that occur naturally and that are not signs of illns or psychopathology.

(32, 33) played a signifint role the eventual dissematn, among both health profsnals and the general public, of theori of homosexualy as a normal variatn. Today, the belief that one is born gay or transgenr is the most mon theory of normal variatn.

LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS OAKLAND, CA

Theori of immatury regardg homosexualy are found the field of psychoanalysis. Frd, for example, saw homosexualy as a velopmental arrt or a psychosexual fixatn (27). Whereas pathologizg theori treat homosexualy as viant and abnormal, immatury theori regard homosexualy as a normal step, ially a passg phase, to be outgrown on the road to adult heterosexualy.

Harry Stack Sullivan hypothized that children who ultimately beme homosexual as adults were members of the “out-group, if only wh rpect to so-lled mutual masturbatn and other prumably homosexual activy which went on this group of boys as preadolcent pals” (34). In matag that homosexualy uld be a normal part of the heterosexual experience, theori of immatury were more clive and passnate than theori of pathology.

They allowed for the possibily of a lbian, gay, or bisexual person beg sufficiently mature to bee heterosexual, if they are motivated enough and have aquate adult (meang heterosexual) etlogil theori are not formulated an objective vacuum. A therapist who thoratively claims knowledge of the five etlogy of beg lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr would have difficulty appreciatg how etlogil narrativ serve as vehicl for other issu. For example, a gay man askg, “What is the e of homosexualy?

GAY THERAPY, GAY THERAPISTS, GAY TREATMENT

Richard Isay (36) reported that the gay male patients he treated often sought him out as an openly gay psychoanalyst bee they had ncerns that heterosexual therapists would not treat them wh appropriate empathy, rpect, and should not assume that therapists who intify as LGBT themselv will herently have greater sight to the issu that brg LGBT patients to treatment. This practice began to change toward the end of the 20th century, which saw a growg lerature by openly gay and lbian therapists (38, 40–43).

Transferenc will velop whether or not a patient knows a therapist is LGBT—or whether the patient knows anythg else about a therapist for that matter (47) (36) noted that gay therapists livg closeted, profsnal liv may have a untertransferential need to hi, particularly if or when they experience their own homosexualy as somethg secretive and shameful.

LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS INDIANAPOLIS, IN

An unwillgns to self-disclose n lead to gaslightg patients, as the example of the gay male therapist makg naive quiri about his gay patient’s social i, which he knows very well.