Sandor Rado, American psychoanalysis, and the question of bisexuality. 2017

Matthew Tontonoz

The Hungarian-born physician and psychoanalyst Sandor Rado (1890-1972), who practiced for most of his career in the United States, played a central role in shaping American psychoanalysts' views toward homosexuality. Historians have pointed to Rado's rejection of Freud's notion of constitutional bisexuality as the key theoretical maneuver that both pathologized homosexuality and inspired an optimistic approach to its treatment. Yet scholarly analysis of the arguments that Rado made for his rejection of bisexuality is lacking. This article seeks to provide that analysis, by carefully reviewing and evaluating Rado's arguments by the standards of his own day. Because one of Rado's main arguments is that bisexuality is an outdated concept according to modern biology, I consider what contemporary biologists had to say on the topic. The work of behavioral endocrinologist Frank Beach (1911-1988) is important in this context and receives significant attention here. Rado ultimately distanced himself from Beach's behavioral endocrinology, appealing instead to evolutionary discourse to buttress his claim that homosexuality is pathological. This tactic allowed him to refashion psychoanalysis into a moralistic discipline, one with closer ties to a medical school. (PsycINFO Database Record

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D009014 Morals Standards of conduct that distinguish right from wrong. Morality
D011572 Psychoanalysis The separation or resolution of the psyche into its constituent elements. The term has two separate meanings: 1. a procedure devised by Sigmund Freud, for investigating mental processes by means of free association, dream interpretation and interpretation of resistance and transference manifestations; and 2. a theory of psychology developed by Freud from his clinical experience with hysterical patients. (From Campbell, Psychiatric Dictionary, 1996). Psychodynamic Analysis,Analyses, Psychodynamic,Analysis, Psychodynamic,Psychodynamic Analyses
D001727 Bisexuality The sexual attraction or relationship between members of both the same and the opposite SEX.
D005260 Female Females
D006716 Homosexuality The sexual attraction or relationship between members of the same SEX. Homosexuality, Ego-Dystonic,Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality,Homosexuality, Ego Dystonic
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001695 Biology One of the BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES concerned with the origin, structure, development, growth, function, genetics, and reproduction of animals, plants, and microorganisms.
D014481 United States A country in NORTH AMERICA between CANADA and MEXICO.
D049673 History, 20th Century Time period from 1901 through 2000 of the common era. 20th Century History,20th Cent. History (Medicine),20th Cent. History of Medicine,20th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 20th Century,History of Medicine, 20th Cent.,History, Twentieth Century,Medical History, 20th Cent.,Medicine, 20th Cent.,20th Cent. Histories (Medicine),20th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 20th (Medicine),Cent. History, 20th (Medicine),Century Histories, 20th,Century Histories, Twentieth,Century History, 20th,Century History, Twentieth,Histories, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 20th Century,Histories, Twentieth Century,History, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Twentieth Century Histories,Twentieth Century History

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