Irving Bieber

Irving Bieber (1930-1991) was an American psychoanalyst, best known for his 1962 study, "Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals", which was written jointly with Harvey J. Dain, Paul R. Dince, Marvin G. Drellich, Henry G. Grand, Ralph R. Gundlach, Malvina W. Kremer, Alfred H. Rifkin, Cornelia B. Wilbur, and Toby B. Bieber. [Irving Bieber, "Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals", Basic Books Inc, 1962, p. 3] Bieber has been grouped with Lionel Ovesey and Charles Socarides as one of the most influential writers on male homosexuality. [Simon LeVay, "Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality", The MIT Press, 1996, ISBN 0-262-12199-9 ]

Biography

Irving Bieber was born in New York City in 1930. He went on to work at Yale Medical College, New York University, and starting in 1953 at the New York Medical College, where he taught a course in psychoanalysis. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE3D7153FF93BA1575BC0A967958260 Irving Bieber, 80, a Psychoanalyst Who Studied Homosexuality, Dies - New York Times ] ] Bieber's 1962 book "Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals" was a counter reaction to the 1948 Kinsey Report on male sexual behavior. It remained the leading study on homosexuality until homosexuality was removed from DSM-III in 1973. William J. Spurlin, 'Culture, Rhetoric, and Queer Identity', "James Baldwin Now", ed. Dwight A. McBride, New York University Press, 1999, pages 107-108] In 1970, Bieber attended a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in San Francisco that was disrupted by gay activists, one of whom called him a "motherfucker." According to Charles Socarides, Bieber, who had "been working all these years to help these people", "took this very hard." [cite book |first=Charles. |last=Socarides |year=1995 |title=Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far |publisher=Adam Margrave Books|location=Phoenix|id= ISBN 0-9646642-5-9] In 1973, he told an interviewer that "a homosexual is a person whose heterosexual function is crippled, like the legs of a polio victim."

Bieber arranged a partial translation into English of a paper by the Hungarian pediatrician S. Lindner, who had reported a systematic study of sucking. Sigmund Freud had used Lindner's observation that sensual sucking seems to absorb the attention completely and leads to either sleep or an orgasm-like response to develop his theory of infantile sexuality. Bieber pointed out what he saw as inaccuracies in Freud's use of this paper. [cite book |first=Malcolm. |last=Macmillan |year=1997|title=Freud Evaluated:The Completed Arc|publisher=The MIT Press|location=Cambridge |id= ISBN 0-262-63171-7]

Bieber died in Manhattan in 1991.

Books

Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals

"Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals" contained a preface, twelve chapters, two appendixes, a bibliography and an index. The chapters were: "Concepts of Male Homosexuality", "Chronology and Methodology", "Mother-Son Relationship", "Father-Son Relationship", "Siblings", "The Triangular System", "Developmental Aspects of the Prehomosexual Child", "Homosexuality in Adolescence", "The Sexual Adaptation of the Male Homosexual", "Latent" Homosexuality", "The Results of Treatment", and "Conclusions".

"Homosexuality" has been criticized for examining homosexuals already in analytic treatment as opposed to non-patient heterosexuals. [Richard C Friedman, "Male Homosexuality: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective", Yale University Press, 1988, pages 36-37] It has been suggested that the study informed stereotypes later promulgated by the media. For example, in 1964 "Life Magazine" ["Life", June 26, 1964, page 68] featured an article on homosexuals and smothering mothers directly inspired by this study. [Lee Edelman, "Homographesis: essays in gay literary and cultural theory", Routledge, New York & London, 1994, page 166] Writers associated with NARTH have continued to use the study. Joseph Nicolosi commented, "Irving Bieber's 1962 study established this family type [the classic triadic family] empirically. It has been repeatedly shown to be the foundational model in male homosexuality, although there is more consistency in findings about fathers than about mothers." [http://www.narth.com/docs/griefwork.html Interview with Joseph Nicolosi ] ]

Bibliography

*"Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals", 1962
*"Cognitive Psychoanalysis: Cognitive Processes in Psychopathology", 1980

ee also

*Conversion therapy

References