Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was born May 6, 1856, in Moravi. He was one of the world's most acclaimed psychologists and ideas such as conscious versus unconscious mind, defense mechanisms including denial and repression all stem from Sigmund Freud's theories also known as Freudian belief.

His theory on homosexuality comes from 'Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality' published in 1905 and ' “Certain Neurotic Mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia, and Homosexuality' published in 1922.

His theory was that every human being is born bisexual and later develops their sexual orientation through the ordinary stages of human development. He suggested that homosexuality could be a deviation of bisexuality being caused by biological and psychological factors. We see this in his theory of "The Oedipal crisis" where young boys and girls supposedly begin their first love towards their mother. He also suggests that children who fail to master the Oedipus crisis resulted in homosexuality.

"Freud and many of his modern successors saw homosexuality as the penalty for the boy child’s failure to win the Oedipal battle against a seductive, overbearing, over-affectionate mother—the classic Mrs. Portnoy. Instead of finally identifying with the hated father at the resolution of the Oedipal rivalry, the child identifies with the mother. Thereafter, the now homosexual male seeks other men as his love object. . . . In the Freudian homosexual model, the penis-adoring child also shows disgust for the penisless woman. This is coupled with his castration fear at the hands of an angry father-rival"



On a side note a letter of his dated 1935 goes:

"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 a cruelty, too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.
By asking me if I can help [your son], 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 homosexual or gets changed."



Reference 1

Sigmund Freud. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality - 1905 SE, Volume Seven London, 1953. Page 226.