Irving Bieber

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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. [1].

Contents

[edit] Biography

Irving Bieber was born in New York City in 1930.[2] He went on to work at Yale Medical College, New York University, and finally at the New York Medical College in 1953.[2]

Bieber's 1962 Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals was a counter reaction to the 1948 Kinsey Reports.[3] It remained the leading study on homosexuality until homosexuality was removed from DSM-III in 1973.[3] Bieber died in Manhattan in 1991.

[edit] Homosexuality

Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals has been disavowed by some for defining homosexuality as an illness[2], and for examining homosexuals already in analytic treatment as opposed to non-patient heterosexuals.[4] It has been suggested that the study informed stereotypes later promulgated by the media.[3] For example, in 1964 Life Magazine[5] featured an article on homosexuals directly inspired by this study, with regards to smothering mothers[6]. It is sometimes remembered as blaming mothers for their sons's homosexuality[7]. 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.' [8]

[edit] Bibliography

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

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Irving Bieber, Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals, Basic Books Inc, 1962, p. 3
  2. ^ a b c Irving Bieber, 80, a Psychoanalyst Who Studied Homosexuality, Dies - New York Times
  3. ^ a b c William J. Spurlin, 'Culture, Rhetoric, and Queer Identity', James Baldwin Now, ed. Dwight A. McBride, New York University Press, 1999, pages 107-108
  4. ^ Richard C Friedman, Male Homosexuality: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective, Yale University Press, 1988, pages 36-37
  5. ^ Life, June 26, 1964, page 68
  6. ^ Lee Edelman, Homographesis: essays in gay literary and cultural theory, Routledge, New York & London, 1994, page 166
  7. ^ Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991, p. 249
  8. ^ Interview with Joseph Nicolosi