Timeline: Treatment of LGBT People by Doctors and Psychologists

Chronology of sources referring to the treatment of LGBT people by medical and psychological professionals

Under construction

From Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976), Bibliography: II Treatmemt" 1884-1974", pages 596-598 and "Notes", pages .

Listed earliest to latest:

1866, August

Buck, W. D. "A Raid on the Uterus," New York Medical Journal, vol. 5 (August 1866), p. 464.

In an extract from an address in 1866 by Dr. W. D. Buck, President of the New Hampshire State Medical Society, the doctor says: "A distinguished surgeon in New York city, twenty-five years ago [1841], said, when [Guillaume] Dupuytren's operation for relaxation of the sphincter ani was in vogue, every young man who came from Paris found every other individual's anus too large, and proceeded to pucker it up. The result was that New York anuses looked like gimlet-holes in a piece of pork." Buck goes on to say that the uterus, also, is being subjected to "surgical operations, and is now-a-days subject to all sorts of barbarity from surgeons anxious for notoriety." His statement, which bears further analysis, seems aimed at primitive abortion and birth control measures. A brief biography of Dupuytren is in John Talbott, A Biographical History of Medicine (N.Y.: Grune & Stratton, 1970), p. 342-44. Jonathan Ned Katz thanks Stephen W. Foster and Dennis Lampkowski for help with this research.

1889, September 7 and 14

Lydston, G. Frank. "Sexual Perversion, Satyriasis and Nymphomania," Medical and Surgical Reporter. Vol. 61, no. 10 (Sept. 7,1889): p. 253-58. (P. 253.) Vol. 61, no. II (Sept. 14, 1889): 281-85.

a lecture delivered at the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons. Although he discusses male and female homosexuality, Lydston makes no specific recommendation for treatment. But since he links homosexuality with satyriasis and nymphomania, there is an unspoken suggestion that it should be similarly treated; for the two "perversions" of which he speaks Lydston suggests "removal of irritation of the sexual apparatus," "anaphrodisiac remedies," "attempts to restrain sexual excesses, or to break the habit of masturbation." But if the "disease" is organic, it is probably incurable and requires more radical treatment: "In women, extirpation of the ovaries, or the procedure of Mr. Baker Brown--clitoridectomy--may be performed. Howe recommends the application of the actual cautery to the back of the neck. Basing this treatment upon the theory that the disease takes its origin in over-excitation of the nerve fibres of the cerebellum or some of the ganglia in the neighborhood, he also suggests blisters and setons to answer the same purpose. Dry cupping to the nucha is also serviceable. Means to restore the general health are always indicated. In the severe cases of the maniacal form of excessive sexual desire the asylum is usually our only recourse".

1893, February 4

"Removal of the Ovaries as a Therapeutic Measure in Public Institutions for the Insane," Journal of the American Medical Association (Chicago), Feb. 4, 1893, p. 135-37.

There may be an earlier article on this in January, in the same journal. Dr. Joseph Price mentioned: p. 136-37. Also see "Domestic Correspondence," same, Feb. 18, 1893, p. 182-83. For comment on this article see Dr. F. E. Daniel (1893) on OutHistory.org.

1893, August

Daniel, F. E. "Castration of Sexual Perverts," Texas Medical Journal (Austin), Aug. 1893: 255-71. Reprinted in Texas Medical Journal. Vol. 27, no. 10 (April 1912): p. 369-85· A note (p. 369) adds: "Under the title, 'Should Insane Criminals or Sexual Perverts be Permitted to Procreate?' this paper was read at the Joint Session of the World's Columbian Auxiliary Congress--Section of Medical Jurisprudence--and the International Medico-Legal Congress, August 16th, 1893, and also before the American Medico-Legal Society, New York, October 11th, 1893, and published in the 'Medico-Legal Journal' for December, and in the 'Psychological Bulletin,' New York." Dr. Daniel is identified in the 1912 reprint as the editor of the Texas Medical Journal.

1894, May

Kiernan, James G. "Insanity. Lecture XXVI.-Perversion," Detroit Lancet. Vol. 7, no. II (May 1884): p. 481-84. (P. 483-84.)

1894, June

Kiernan, James G. "Psychical Treatment of Congenital Sexual Inversion," Review of Insanity and Nervous Disease. Vol. 4, no. 4 (June 1894): p. 293-95·

1895

Schrenck-Notzing, Albert von. Therapeutic Suggestion in Psychopathia Sexualis with Especial Reference to Contrary Sexual Instinct. Authorized trans. from the German by Charles Gilbert Chaddock. Phila.: F. A. Davis, 1895.

1895, March

Raffalovich, Marc Andre. "Uranism, Congenital Sexual Inversion. Observations and Recommendations ... " Trans. C. Judson Herrick. Journal of Comparative Neurology. Vol. 5 (March 1895): p. 33-65. (P. 33-34,36-37,42,52.)

1895, April

Ellis, Havelock. "Sexual Inversion in Women," Alienist and Neurologist. Vol. 16, no. 2 (April 1895): 141-58. (P. 158.)

1896, April

Talbot, E. S., and Ellis, Havelock. "A Case of Degenerative Insanity, with Sexual Inversion, Melancholia, following Removal of Testicles, Attempted Murder and Suicide," Journal of Mental Science. Vol. 42, no. 177, new ser. no. 177 (April 1896): p. 340-44 (Le. 46-erroneous pagination in original). (P. 341-44.)

1896, July

Ellis, Havelock. "A Note on the Treatment of Sexual Inversion," Alienist and Neurologist. Vol. 17 (July 1896): p. 257-64. (P. 258-59.)

1897

Ellis, Havelock, and Symonds, John Addington. Sexual Inversion. 1st English ed. London: Wilson and Macmillan, 1897; photo reprint, N.¥.: Arno, 1975· (P. 73.)

1899

Quackenbos, John Duncan. "Hypnotic Suggestion in the Treatment of Sexual Perversions and Moral Anaesthesia: A Personal Experience," Transactions of the New Hampshire Medical Society. 1899: p. 69-91. (P. 69, 72, 75, 78-80.)

1904, February 1

"The Gentleman Degenerate. A Homosexualist's Self-Description and Self-Applied Title. Pudic Nerve Section Fails Therapeutically," Alienist and Neurologist. Vol. 2$, no. I (Feb. I, 1904): p. 62-70. (P. 68-70.)

1908

Sharp, Harry Clay. "The Sterilization of Degenerates." Indiana Board of State Charities. National Christian League for the Promotion of Purity, 1908. (P. 1-2, 6.) Reprint of paper read before the American Prison Association, Chicago, 1909. Copy at: N.Y. Public Library, Research Division.

1908?

Stevenson, Edward I. Prime (Xavier Mayne, pseud.). The Intersexes; A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life. [Naples?:] Privately printed, [by R. Rispoli, 1908?]; photo reprint, N.Y.: Amo, 1975. (P. II9-22, 549.)

1913, August 2

Brill, A. A. "The Conception of Homosexuality," Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol. 61 (Aug. 2, 1913): p. 335-40.

1914

Hughes, Charles H. "An Emasculated Homo-sexual. His Antecedent and Post-Operative Life," Alienist and Neurologist. Vol. 35 (1914): p. 277-80.

1920

Freud, Sigmund. "The Psychogenesis of a Case of Female Homosexuality," International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. Vol. I, no. 2 (1920): p. 125-49. (P. 125-27, 129-30, 131, 133, 134,135,136,141-42,144,148-49.)

1930, October

Stekel, Wilhelm. "Is Homosexuality Curable?" Trans. Bertrand S. Frohman. Psychoanalytic Review. Vol. 17 (Oct. 1930): p. 443-51. (P. 443, 447-48.)

1932, October

Deutsch, Helene. "On Female Homosexuality," authorized trans. Edith B. Jackson, Psychoanalytic Quarterly. Vol. I (Oct. 1932): p. 484-510. (P. 484-88, 490--91.). A second trans.: "Homosexuality in Women," International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Vol. 14 (1933): p. 34-56.

1935

Max, Louis William. "Breaking Up a Homosexual Fixation by the Conditioned Reaction Technique: A Case Study," Psychological Bulletin. Vol. 32 (1935): p. 734·

1938

Chideckel, Maurice. Female Sex Perversion. N.Y.: Eugenics Pub. Co., 1938.

1940

Owensby, Newdigate M. "Homosexuality and Lesbianism Treated with Metrazol," Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Vol. 92, no. I (1940): p. 65-66.

1941

Henry, George W. Sex Variants; A Study of Homosexual Patterns. 2 vols. N.Y.: Paul B. Hoeber, 1941.

1941

Owensby, Newdigate M. 'The Correction of Homosexuality," Urologic and Cutaneous Review. Vol. 45, no. 8 (1941): p. 494-96. (P. 495,496.)

1941

Rosenzweig, Saul, and Hoskins, R. G. "A Note on the Ineffectualness of Sex-Hormone Medication in a Case of Pronounced Homosexuality," Psychosomatic Medicine. Vol. 3, no. 1 (1941): p.87-89·

1942, July

Banay, Ralph S., and Davidoff, L. "Apparent Recovery of a Sex Psychopath after Lobotomy," Journal of Criminal Psychopathology. Vol. 4, no. 1 (July 1942): p. 59-66.

1943

Bergler, Edmund. "Suppositions about the Mechanism of Criminosis," Journal of Criminal Psychopathology, vol. 5 (1943), p. 215-46 (especially case 4, p. 235). Permission to reprint excerpts from Bergler's reports was denied Jonathan Ned Katz when he was preparing Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976).

1944

Bergler, Edmund. "Eight Prerequisites for the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Homosexuality," Psychoanalytic Review (N.Y.), vol. 3 I (1944); see especially p. 255, 260, 266, 268-69, 277-79, 281-86.

Glass, S. J., and Johnson, Roswell, H. "Limitations and Complications of Organotherapy in Male Homosexuality," Journal of Clinical Endocrinology. Vol. 4, no. I I (1944): p. 540--44. (P. 541-43·)

Liebman, Samuel. "Homosexuality, Transvestism, and Psychosis: Study of a Case Treated with Electroshock," Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Vol. 99, no. 6 (1944): p. 945-58.

1945

Moore, Thomas V. "The Pathogenesis and Treatment of Homosexual Disorders: A Digest of Some Pertinent Evidence," Journal of Personality. Vol. 14 (1945): p. 47-83. (P. 57, 71-73.)

1948

Friedlander, Joseph, and Banay, Ralph S. "Psychosis Following Lobotomy in a Case of Sexual Psychopathology; Report of a Case," Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. Vol. 59 (1948): p. 302-21. (P. 303-11, 315, 321.)

1952, March

Bowman, Karl M. "Sexual Deviation Research." Report to California Assembly, Judiciary Subcommittee on Sex Research, Sacramento, Calif., March 1952, p. 80.

1953

Bowman, Karl M., and Engle, Bernice. "The Problem of Homosexuality," Journal of Social Hygiene. Vol. 39, no. I (1953): p. 2-16. (P. 10-11.)

1953

Harms, Ernest. "Homo-Anonymous," Diseases of the Nervous System. Vol. 14, no. 10 (1953): p. 318-19.

1953

Smec, J., and Freund, Kurt. "Treatment of Male Homosexuality through Conditioning," International Journal of Sexology. Vol. 7, no. 2 (1953): p. 92-93.

1957

Hadden, Samuel B. "Attitudes Toward and Approaches to the Problem of Homosexuality," Pennsylvania Medical Journal. Vol. 6, no. 9 (1957): p. 1195-98.

1959

Smith, Alexander B., and Bassin, Alexander. "Group Therapy with Homosexuals," Journal of Social Therapy. Vol. 5, no. 3 (1959): p. 225-32. (P. 227, 231-32.)

1959

Robertiello, Richard C. Voyage from Lesbos: The Psychoanalysis of a Female Homosexual. N.¥.: Citadel, 1959. (P. 238-48, 253.)

1962

Caprio, Frank S. Female Homosexuality; A Psychodynamic Study of Lesbianism. Foreword by Karl M. Bowman. N.Y.: Grove Press, Evergreen Black Cat, 1962. (P. 299-301, 304.)

1962, Spring-Summer-Fall

Hirschfeld, Magnus. "Adaptionsbehandlung (Anpassungstherapie) der HomosexualiHit." Trans. Henry Gerber from Die Homosexualitiit des Mannes und des Weibes, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1920): chap. 23, p. 439-61. In ONE Institute Quarterly. Vol. 5, nos. 2, 3, 4, issues 17 (Spring, Summer, Fall 1962): p. 41-54· (P. 41-46, 49-51, 54.

1963

Miller, Michael M. "Hypnotic-Aversion Treatment of Homosexuality," Journal of the National Medical Association. Vol. 55, no. 5 (1963): p. 4II-15, 436. (P. 4II-13, 415.)

1964

"Fatal Emetine Poisoning from Aversion Treatment," Re W. T. (Westminster Inquest, Feb. 7, 1964), Medico-Legal Journal, vol. 32, no. 2 (1964), page 95. Cited in Weinberg and Bell, Homosexuality (1972), page 287.

Describes the death of a patient undergoing aversion treatment for homosexuality.

1967

Cautela, Joseph R. "Covert Sensitization," Psychological Reports. Vol. 20, no. 2 (1967): p. 459-68. (P. 464-65·)

1967, November Kaye, Harvey E.; Berl, S.; Clare, J.; Eleston, M. R.; Gershwin, B. S.; Gershwin, P.; Kogan, S.; Torda, c.; and Wilbur, C. B. "Homosexuality in Women," Archives of General Psychiatry. Vol. 17 (Nov. 1967): p. 626-34. (P. 626, 632-34.)

1969

Barlow, David H.; Leitenberg, Harold; and Agras, W. Stewart. "Experimental Control of Sexual Deviations through Manipulation of the Noxious Scene in Covert Sensitization," Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Vol. 74, no. 5 (1969): p. 596-601. (P. 598, 601.)

1970

Rutner, Ivan I. "A Double-barrel Approach to Modification of Homosexual Behavior," Psychological Reports. Vol. 26, no. 2 (1970): p. 355-58. (P. 356-58.)

1971

LoPiccolo, Joseph. "Case Study: Systematic Desensitization of Homosexuality," Behavior Therapy. Vol. 2, no. 3 (July 1971): p. 394-99· (P. 396-98.)

1972

Blair, Ralph. Etiological and Treatment Literature on Homosexuality. Otherwise Monograph Ser., no. 5. National Task Force on Student Personnel Services and Homosexuality, 1972.

Primal therapy, Vegetotherapy, musical analysis, astrology, Scientology, and Aesthetic Realism are documented, pages 36-37. See also "Part II: Treatment," for a documented discussion and summary of the subject.

Weinberg, Martin S. and Alan P. Bell, Homosexuality; An Annotated Bibliography (N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1972).

Bibliography of the medical and psychological literature.

1972, November

Institute for Sex Research. Mimeographed bibliography on "Homosexuality-Aversion and Behavior Therapy" (Nov. 1972). See also May 1974.

1973, April

Bullough, Vern L., and Martha Voght. "Homosexuality and the 'Secret Sin' in Pre-Freudian America," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. 28, no. 2 (April 1973), p. 143-55.

Surgical measures for masturbation, satyriasis, etc., are cited.

1974, May

Institute for Sex Research. Mimeographed bibliography on "Homosexuality Therapy: Pre-1940" (May 1974)· See also 1972, November.

1974, September 9

Roueche, Berton. "Annals of Medicine; As Empty As Eve," The New Yorker. Sept. 9, 1974: p.84-100.

1974, October 17

Deutsch, Nicholas. Interviewed by Jonathan Katz. N.Y.C., Oct. 17, 1974.

1975

Klaich, Dolores. Woman + Woman; Attitudes Toward Lesbianism. N.Y.: Morrow, 1975, paperback. (P. 100-01.)

1975, July

Silverstein, Charles. [Review of John Bancroft's Deviant Sexual Behavior: Modification and Assessment. London: Oxford University Press, 1974.] Behavior Therapy. Vol. 6, no. 4 (July 1975)·

1976, Winter

Katz, Jonathan Ned. "Treatment." Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976), pages ??-???

Research

Can you help OutHistory.org with this research on additional treatment literature?

Bieber

Bergler

Sinclair, Jo (pseud. of )

Socarides

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