Stop messing around with CBT and AI slop and have proper psychoanalysis with an actual human, like the diva that you are

For Pride Month, here is Freud’s famous kind, thoughtful, generous, brilliant, and beautiful letter, which he wrote in English, to an American woman and mother inquiring about her homosexual son, and asking: could Freud help him? The reason we have this letter is because the mother was so moved and grateful that years later, she shared it with Alfred Kinsey, famous American sexologist. She shared this with Kinsey with a brief note enclosed in which she described Freud as a “Great and Good man.” I know that others may disagree, but I must insist that psychoanalysis does not and should not tolerate homophobia or transphobia. To work psychoanalytically requires us to accept that sexuality and gender expression comes in all forms. Freud thought of himself as a scientist, and he was not ideologically driven. He came to these conclusions near the end of his life and career honestly because he understood what the mind is, and he was, at all times, a clinician and doctor who wanted people to learn to live comfortably and happily enough in their lives, without shame. If he could get there in 1935, then all of us should be able to arrive to this understanding in 2026. Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💝 (PS I mildly edited the line breaks simply for readability on the internet. The link to this letter in the original is in the next post in this thread. 💌📝👇) April 9th 1935 WIEN IX., BERGGASSE 19 Dear Mrs. [Erased] 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 cruelty too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis. By asking me if I can help, 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 this. 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 a homosexual or gets changed. If you make up your mind he should have analysis with me—I don’t expect you will—, he has to come over to Vienna. I have no intention of leaving here. However, don’t neglect to give me your answer. Sincerely yours with best wishes, Freud P.S. I did not find it difficult to read your handwriting. Hope you will not find my writing and my English a harder task. Dear DR. KINSEY: HEREWITH I enclose a letter from a Great and Good man which you may retain. From a Grateful Mother

בלי להתעורר מהחלום ששלושת הספרים הללו מעירים אותך ממנו.

More Anna Freud memes!