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Meeting Summary Jennifer I. Downey, MD Summary The terms "homophobia" and "internalized homophobia" originated from outside psychoanalysis. The former signifies irrationally negative attitudes towards non-heterosexual people, and the latter, irrationally negative attitudes towards the self for being lesbian/gay and/or for experiencing sexual desire for same-gendered others. In this talk, we discuss psychodynamic influences on internalized homophobia from a developmental perspective. Antihomosexual attitudes in individuals with internalized homophobia usually are condensed, symbolic expressions of self-hatred that acquire special meanings during different phases of development. The manifestations of such negative attitudes are diverse. The psychological mechanisms involved in the genesis of internalized homophobia supplement those discussed in the classical psychoanalytic literature on characterological masochism. Extrapsychoanalytic research on sex differences in psychological development as well as the psychological functioning of gay and lesbian persons sheds light on transference-countertransference phenomena in the treatment of patients with internalized homophobia. We present a treatment vignette of a woman and discuss similarities and differences between internalized homophobia and other forms of self hatred in men and women. Reference Dr. Friedman is the author of Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective, published by Yale University Press. Drs. Downey and Friedman have most recently co-authored Sexual Orientation and Psychoanalysis: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice (Columbia University Press, 2002).
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