FROM THE ARMY OF THE ARTS God's elect. object, to enhance his prestige. double standards, its emphasis on the Psychiatry and the Homosexual (GLF Pamphlet No. 1,15p)/Rosulind Duvis Since its beginnings, capitalise has been associted with puritanism. This morality assisted in the accumulation of capital by stressing that restraint, particularly sexual restramt, in the present was an indication that one was of No wonder then that pleasurable sexual activity was divorced from the respectable behaviour of the respectable male bourgeois in the 19th century, At the same time, the bourgeois woman lived as a symbol of the wealth of her husband; hardly even in a human relationship with him but more as an Even today this ruling cluss morality, which justifies the subordinate role of women, still forms the basis of sexual "normality' and acceptable behaviour," and is intimately linked to the maintenance of the capitalist system, There have however been increasing attacks on this sexual normality, with it "differentness" of the sexes, and narrow definitions of behaviour appropriate to euch sex. Gay people are particularly obnoxious to this morality. Men who love men are neither men nor respectable, while the possibility of women loving women is ruled out. Legitimate sex is still seen as being for the reproduction of the species within marriage (in other words with one perio and for life). Homosexual sex on the other hand is seen purely as a pleasurable activity, not for the reproduction of the species, taking place outside marriage and rarely with one person for any length of time. It is therefore seen as cifegizimate and acts as one living challenge to all aspects of a dominant, cass-hased sexual moral code Within this framework, psychiatrists exist to patch up the rather large number of people who find unbearable the many contradictions imposed on their personal lives by the capitalist system, particularly its represive sexual codes. Psychiatrists assume that their patient's inadequate response is a personal, rather than a social problem. In other words they prefer to define the person, rather than the entire social system as "ill" - from here they then try to modity the individual so that he/she can bear his or her cross, and sior back into 'normal society. It follows that psychiatry has become a rather important source of con fusion about the system, especiaily because its Landon N.7. science about them. One of the important things that the Guy Liberation movement has done is to launch a bitter attack on this now pseudo-scientific priesthood, This is very well demonstrated in this pamphiet from Gay Lib, which in a very clear way shows how the main psychiatric schools, Freudianism and behaviourism, in their attempts to 'explain' or 'treat gay people, reveal themselves as aspects of bourgeois iden logy, rather than science. As the pamphlet points out, the only proper treatment that confused gays who present therselves lo doctors should receive is to be told that they are not ill and relerred to the nearest gry liberstion group.
Such treatment is almost never the case. Un fortunately many gry peopic are confused, by their apparent isolation, by the general igno rance which surrounds the subjoct, and by their acceptance of "normal bourgeois morality. They often sutfer endless tortures at the hands of psychiatrists who attempt to eliminate their perversion.' This consists in either trying to locate the cuuse in some deviation from the normal" way in which young people grow up, or by trying to shock, cut or drug the 'symptoms" out of existence. Luckily in most cases the attempt fails but it always Increases the difficulties that gay people face, unless the experience linally forom them intn a rejection of psychiatric explanations as a whol This pamphlet is valuable in two ways. For gay people, it shows them that they have no problem in their giynew and can therefore only expect trouble from the psychiarric profession For everyone else it exposes the pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo of psychiatrists as merely attempts to maintain social conformity For these reasons the tesolumonary muvement