Psychoanalysis, psychobiology and homosexuality

Tlie poteiitial role of biological iilfi7tteiices in hicinan sextial orieiita-tion was corisidered inore serious4 duriiig the ear4 phases of psycho-aiialjsls than in the years since World IVar I I. Recent4 studies of Iiomosextialitj and heterosextialitj in the neurosciences have atlrnctetl widespread atten&ioii both in tlie scieii-tific and lay coinmicnities. Tlie salience of these new data for psjclio-atlabtic theoiy and practice is just beginning to be explored. I n this article, we review research on sexual orientation in the following areas: genetics, crossctiltuml sttidies, studies of clevelofi-merit in individuals with abnormal prenatal horiiioiie exposure, childliood plaj patterns, aiid brain studies in boll1 iioiiliuiiiails and humans. Differeiices betweeii inale arid fernale hoinosexunlitj are explored. \Ire propose that psyclioaiia4tic theory can grow and profit of sexualitj, aiid that the interactioii between mind and bodj is t $ ' refroin a careful coiuideration of iiero jiidings in the psjchobiolo appropriate puruiew of psjclioanaipis. UKING-THE PAST TWO DECADES psychoanalytic discussions D about sexual orientation have been fraught with contro-versy. Consideration of the scientific issues pertaining to the origins of homosexuality, heterosexuality, and bisexuality (how-ever defined) has been difficult in light of the rapidly changing psychosocial context framing observation and inference. The climate of intcllectual belief has been turbulent. Psychobiological research on the origins of sexual orienta-tion has not recently been reviewed in the psychoanalytic litera-ture, although it is frequently cited in psychoanalytic discus-sions about various aspects of the topic (Panel, 1986; Isay