Leon Salzman

The concept of latent homosexuality

SummaryAn examination of the concept of latent homosexuality reveals it to have played a vital role in the theory of personality development. However, it is a concept that becomes meaningless outside of the libido theory, since it connotes dormancy rather than potentiality. As a dormancy concept, it requires us to accept the bisexual theory of sexual development as the explanation for the development of homosexuality. A concept involving dormancy is valid in scientific work if there is ample, validated evidence of the pre-existing state which can arise, fully developed under certain stimuli. The necessary and sufficient data for this concept have never been presented, and alternative explanations prove to be more adequate and capable of validation.Since homosexuality is a potentiality in all human beings under certain developmental conditions, so a special concept is required, except the notion of a dynamic theory of personality development. Consequently, we need either to revise our notions about latent homosexuality or else define it more precisely in order to make it a useful, meaningful concept in personality theory.

Comments on the Psychological Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Patients

As a guiding principle, the remediation of emotional disorders requires basic agreements between therapist and patient prior to initiating treatment. Many of these requirements are inimical to the obsessional defensive structure, which tends to make the process of therapy difficult, tedious, and sometimes unrewarding. Although this is notably the case in the psychodynamic approaches, other modalities such as hypnosis, cognitive therapy, and behavioral therapy are also handicapped by the rigidities, avoidance of risk taking, lack of commitment, and related characterological problems of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patient. The excessive zeal, which often looks like active cooperation, may, by its very intensity, complicate or undermine the therapeutic program. These issues need to be addressed, irrespective of the therapeutic modality. On the other hand, the intricacies and variety of defensive tactics that characterize the human brain are often “played out” in this disorder. Thus, the therapist will have a fascinating and rewarding encounter if he or she can be free, flexible, and open to the complexity of these maneuvers.

Psychoanalysis and Behavior Therapy

Therapy, which is broadly defined as the remedial treatment of bodily disorders, can be specifically classified in many ways, depending upon one’s prejudices and preconceptions. There is etiological therapy, in which the cause of the disorder has been definitely established. In contrast to this is symptomatic therapy, which is designed to alleviate specific discomforts associated with a disorder. The former is the case when isoniazid is used to kill the tubercule bacillus, whereas, in the latter, codeine may be administered to relieve the distressing and disabling cough that accompanies tuberculosis. Thus, some therapies palliative and do not destroy the underlying disorder, whereas others are ameliorative because they undermine and eliminate the causal factor.

A Rejoinder to Cyril M. Franks

Franks’s response to my presentation seems to be somewhat at odds with his dictum of a dialogue with psychodynamic theorists. On the one hand, he asserts that my piece did not characterize contemporary behavior therapy. However, although clarifying some errors, he fails to touch on the essential issues of “symptoms and diseases” that he denies but in fact continues to deal with in the therapeutic process. He makes no attempt to answer my specific concerns about behavioral theory’s limited role in understanding and altering the complexities of human functioning. Franks is guilty of the psychoanalytic canard that denies any criticism on the grounds that the critic was not psychoanalyzed. He asserts that no one can truly understand behavioral therapy who is not a committed, practicing behaviorist.

The Behavioral Scientist as Integrator

Cyril Franks makes a cogent and powerful argument for avoiding a too early marriage between two immature partners whose philosophies, understanding, and emotional attitudes toward facts and phantasies are at great variance. Perhaps they should wait until each has matured and learned more about life and each other, especially in the areas of the organization of the brain as well as the mind. This will permit each of them the freedom to be expansive, curious, and inventive before succumbing to a joint enterprise that requires compromise in order to be collaborative.

Psychotherapy as intervention.

SummaryIntervening or intruding into the life of an individual is the implied agreement in the therapeutic process. The question is not whether to intervene but when, how, and when not to. Our conception and philosophy of mental disorder will determine the frequence and nature of our interventions. If our goal is therapy, we must determine where and how our interventions will accelerate and enhance the process of insight and change. We should not be restrained by preconceptions of theory unless the applications of these theories enable us to achieve our therapeutic goals. Recent developments in psychoanalytic theory encourage the use of more frequent and more active interventions in the therapeutic process. Rather than routinely waiting for an impasse or obstacle to be resolved by the patient, there is a greater tendency to move in with a variety of maneuvers to overcome these hurdles. The abandonment of the fiction of anonymity and the tendency to become more actively involved in the relationship as a participant observer, rather than simply as an observer, has necessitated a more detailed analysis of the role of intervention and its counter-indications. The teaching of psychotherapy would be accelerated if the therapeutic process were viewed in terms of a series of intermediate goals. Interventions are devices through which we achieve these goals.