Freud, Male Homosexuality, and the Americans

Anybody inquiring about Freud’s attitude to homosexuality will soon come across a letter he wrote in April 1935. The letter is now almost famous. It was first printed in 1951; it has been reprinted since many times; and it is conveniently available in Ernest Jones’s standard biography. Freud wrote it in English as a courtesy to his correspondent, who was an American, a mother, distressed and embarrassed because her young son was homosexual. What the letter tells her is that she ha...