Freud's Letter to an American Mother

Responding to a woman who contacted him seeking a "cure" for her gay son, Freud wrote: "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 a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty, too." The letter was not published until 1951.

Ironically, that same year, a New York University professor reported to the American Psychological Association that he had "successfully treated" a homosexual patient with electric shock therapy at "intensities considerably higher than those usually employed on human subjects." Despite Freud's tolerance, psychiatrists and psychologists continued to "treat" homosexuality until 1973.

Sources: Miller,Hogan/Hudson