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Three Letters on Homosexuality written by Sigmund Freud
The First Letter
On October 27, 1903, Die Zeit published a letter from Sigmund Freud arguing that homosexuals must not be treated as sick people.
I advocate the standpoint that the homosexual does not belong before the tribunal of a court of law. I am even of the firm conviction that homosexuals must not be treated as sick people, for a perverse orientation is far from being a sickness. Wouldn't that oblige us to characterize as sick many great thinkers and scholars whom we admire precisely because of their mental health?
SOURCE: Die Zeit, Viena, October 27, 1903, p. 5
The Second Letter
In a letter he composed on April 9, 1935 (but which was not published until 1951), Sigmund Freud replied to a concerned American mother about the topic of Homosexuality.
Dear Mrs. X
I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual. I am most impressed by the fact that you do not mention this term yourself in your information about him. May I question you, why do you avoid it? Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function produced by certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute Homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.
By asking me if I a help, you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish Homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way, we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies which are present in every homosexual, in the majority of cases it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual. The result of the treatment cannot be predicted.
What analysis can do for your son runs in a different line. If he is unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, inhibited in his social life, analysis may bring him harmony, peace of mind, full efficiency, whether he remains a homosexual or gets changed. If you make up your mind that he should have analysis with me (I don't expect you will!!) he has to come over to Vienna. I have no intention of leaving here. However, don't neglect to give me your answer.
Sincerely yours with kind wishes,
Freud
P.S. I did not find it difficult to read your handwriting. Hope you will not find my writing and my English a harder task.
SOURCE: Reply to a mother (published 1951)
CITED IN: Freud, Sigmund, "Letter to an American mother", American Journal of Psychiatry, 107 (1951): p. 787.
The Third Letter
Dated December 6, 1938
Dear Sir,
I am willing to give you information to the best of my knowledge.
I cannot agree with you when you call homosexuality a vice or a crime. It is neither of the two, whatever the legal codes of various countries might imply. But it is certainly a disadvantageous predisposition and efforts to overcome it are justified. If only they succeeded as easily!
Psychoanalysis has been of assistance in rare cases, in numerous others it has strengthened a concurrently existing predisposition to the point that the person in question can live bisexually; in most cases it fails to influence the abnormal inclination. Since such a treatment is lengthy and expensive, you probably have nothing to expect from this direction.
The case is perhaps different for your friend, since he is much younger his decision may not be definitive and you are taking on a certain responsibility if you create experiences which confirm him in his homosexuality. Advice about this will not achieve anything; he must decide between the two, which impulse is strongest.
The case of the homosexual in today's society is not as hopeless as it seems to you. In every country there are a number of individuals who although they are outside the norm in this one instance prove themselves to be fully valid in many others, distinguishing themselves by outstanding achievements. It is also well known that some of the greatest personalities of the past were homosexual. Even more frequent is the case that men follow one sexual direction during a certain period of their lives and later exchange it for the other. Or that they remain susceptible to both sexes - that is bisexual - throughout their lives. Finally one cannot overlook the fact that a certain degree of inclination towards a homosexual object choice is part of the constitution of the so-called normal man.
Instead of advice I place these clarifications at your disposal.
Yours faithfully
Prof. Freud.
CITE: Another letter by Freud on homosexuality on Reddit.com
SEE ALSO: "Sigmund Freud Said Homosexuality Wasn’t ‘A Vice or a Crime’ in 1938 Letter" by Alex Cooper. advocate.com on 09/15/23

