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691-679

691

       ... Yates had a well-chronicled history of mental problems, which had led to several hospitalizations and at least two suicide attempts. A deeply religious woman, she believed she was failing to properly home school her children in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake and was haunted by visions that one of her sons would become a gay prostitute. “Jury Finds Yates Legally Insane in Murder Retrial,” by Miguel Bustillo, Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2006

        Andrea Yates was obviously suffering from a very severe case of paranoid schizophrenia when she killed her five children. And the clue to her severe bisexual conflict and gender confusion, invariably the cause of schizophrenia and its related mental illnesses, lies in the last sentence of the above quotation wherein it was stated that she was "haunted by visions that one of her sons would become a gay prostitute."

       Actually the real fear which "haunted" Andrea Yates was the fear of her own powerful homosexual nature which she had repressed completely her entire life due to the strictures of her narrow religious beliefs which designated homosexuality as sinful and "Satanic".

       In her insane mind, utilizing the psychological mechanism of projection which is invariably operative in paranoia, one of her sons, the oldest of whom was seven at the time of his murder, becomes the one she fears might turn out to be homosexual, and not herself. Furthermore, Yates's severe gender confusion was demonstrated by the fact she chose a male, a son, to represent her own homosexual fears. In her irrational mind, she unconsciously identified not only as a sinful, "Satanic" homosexual but also as a masculine one, the gay male prostitute in her "visions", i.e. her paranoid schizophrenic delusions.

       Lastly, in news photographs of Andrea Yates, it is extremely difficult to discern any traces of genuine femininity in her appearance. Her basic masculine nature predominates. Thus schizophrenia, the bearded lady disease, has once again become the instigator of a terrible human tragedy.

690

       These sudden reintegrations of tendencies opposed to homosexual activity in turn set up the situation of homosexual cravings, with consequences similar to those above indicated. That the outcome in these individuals who have had earlier overt experience is somewhat less ominous than is the case in its absence is not only theoretically to be expected, but actually the case both in the paranoid developments and in those who undergo schizophrenic disorders. (27) - (Ibid Quotation 689, p. 214)

        What Dr. Sullivan is emphasizing here is the fact that persons who have had actual homosexual experiences, either in reality or by means of masturbatory fantasy, and then subsequently repress the memory of them, for whatever reasons, fare much better psychologically when these repressed homosexual cravings inevitably force their way back into conscious awareness than do those persons who are experiencing consciously for the first time sudden, frightening eruptions of homosexual desires and longings.

689

       In any case, the appearance within awareness of the homoerotic interest stirs such violent self-reproach that a dissociation or a vigorous defensive process results. If the self is able to dissociate the abhorrent system, the personality continues thereafter to be in grave danger of panic with succeeding schizophrenia, unless the sexual tensions are being drained off by some collateral procedure such as frequent masturbation or more or less definitely autosexual intercourse with women. Moreover, under cover of the dissociation, experience in any case continues to be integrated into the dissociated system, and its partition of energy in the personality to grow. - Harry Stack Sullivan, M.D., Personal Psychopathology, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, l972, p. 212.

        The great psycho-analyst Harry Stack Sullivan here succinctly and brilliantly describes the psychological and physical mechanics underlying all functional mental illness. First, there appears in the person's conscious mind the sudden awareness of the dreaded homosexual wishes, followed immediately by the harsh denial and repression of these wishes, and then by their slow but unrelenting buildup in the unconscious mind until the sheer force of the accumulated sexual tensions underlying them cause the breaking point to be reached. It is at this stage of the malignant process that the so-called "homosexual panic" takes over and invariably ushers in the onset of the frank schizophrenic symptomatology.

688

       When I was writing down these fantasies, I once asked myself, "What am I really doing? Certainly this has nothing to do with science. But then what is it?" Whereupon a voice within me said, "It is art." I was astonished. It had never entered my head that what I was writing had any connection with art. Then I thought, "Perhaps my unconscious is forming a personality that is not me, but which is insisting on coming through to expression." I knew for a certainty that the voice had come from a woman. I recognized it as the voice of a patient, a talented psychopath who had a strong transference to me. She had become a living figure within my mind.

       Obviously what I was doing wasn't science. What then could it be but art?

        It was as though these were the only alternatives in the world. That is the way a woman's mind works.

       I said very emphatically to this voice that my fantasies had nothing to do with art and I felt a great inner resistance. No voice came through, however, and I kept on writing.

       Then came the next assault, and again the same assertion: "That is art." This time I caught her and said, "No, it is not art! On the contrary, it is nature," and prepared myself for an argument. When nothing of the sort occurred, I reflected that the "woman within me" did not have the speech centers I had. And so I suggested that she use mine. She did so and came through with a long statement.

       I was greatly intrigued by the fact that a woman should interfere with me from within. My conclusion was that she must be the "soul", in the primitive sense, and I began to speculate on the reasons why the name "anima" was given to the soul. Why was it thought of as feminine? Later I came to see that this inner feminine figure plays a typical, or archetypal, role in the unconscious of man, and I called her the "anima". The corresponding figure in the unconscious of woman I called the "animus." - (Ibid, QUOTATION 687, pages 185, 186.)

        Out of the turmoil and anguish inflicted upon his psyche by the psychotic visions and hallucinations which he was enduring during this period, Jung's powerful bisexual conflict emerges in the form of "the woman within me." This hallucinated person who had become "a living figure within me" was the embodiment of his strongly homosexual nature, hitherto severely repressed and denied. It had finally broken through into conscious awareness only as the result of his psychosis. Unfortunately Jung never admitted in his writings, or elsewhere, from this time forth that this "anima" he had discovered within himself was in reality also a crude, lustful, sexual being. Instead, he treated her wholly as a spiritual being who was an integral part of his "soul". For this reason his recovery from his psychosis, as stated previously, was essentially a social recovery only, without insight, and thus left him prone to a lifetime of continuing mental illness, or schizophrenia, though never again on such a severe scale as before. Jung's theory of the "animus" and "anima" within everyone was but a desexualized version of Freud's theory of the basic bisexual nature of us all. It was a version of the psyche which was received much more acceptingly at that time in so-called polite society than was Freud's more elemental, yet more truthful, bisexually-based one. Even today this is the basic theoretical concept differentiating the followers of Freud and Jung.

687

       Toward the autumn of 1913 the pressure which I had felt was in me seemed to be moving outward, as though there were something in the air. The atmosphere actually seemed to me darker than it had been. It was as though the sense of oppression no longer sprang exclusively from a psychic situation, but from concrete reality. This feeling grew more and more intense.

       In October, while I was alone on a journey, I was suddenly seized by an overpowering vision: I saw a monstrous flood covering all the northern and low-lying lands between the North Sea and the Alps. When it came up to Switzerland I saw that the mountains grew higher and higher to protect our country. I realized that a frightful catastrophe was in progress. I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands. Then the whole sea turned to blood. This vision lasted about one hour. I was perplexed and nauseated, and ashamed of my weakness.

       Two weeks passed; then the vision recurred, under the same conditions, even more vividly than before, and the blood was more emphasized. An inner voice spoke. "Look at it well; it is wholly real and it will be so. You cannot doubt it." T hat winter someone asked me what I thought were the political prospects of the world in the future. I replied that I had no thoughts on the matter, but that I saw rivers of blood.

       I asked myself whether these visions pointed to a revolution, but could not readily imagine anything of the sort. And so I drew the conclusion that they had to do with me myself, and decided that I was menaced by a psychosis. The idea of war did not occur to me at all.

        An incessant stream of fantasies had been released, and I did my best not to lose my head but to find some way to understand these strange things. I stood helpless before an alien world; everything in it seemed difficult and incomprehensible. I was living in a constant state of tension; often I felt as if gigantic blocks of stone were tumbling down upon me. One thunderstorm followed another. My enduring these storms was a question of brute strength. Others have been shattered by them - Nietzsche, and Holderin, and many others. But there was a demonic strength in me, and from the beginning there was no doubt in my mind that I must find the meaning of what I was experiencing in these fantasies. When I endured these assaults of the unconscious I had an unswerving conviction that I was obeying a higher will, and that feeling continued to uphold me until I had mastered the task.

       Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru.

       Whenever the outlines of a new personification appeared, I felt it almost as a personal defeat. It meant: "Here is something else you didn't know until now!" Fear crept over me that the succession of such figures might be endless, that I might lose myself in bottomless abysses of ignorance. My ego felt devalued - although the successes I had been having in worldly affairs might have reassured me. In my darkness (horridas nostrae mentis purga tenebras - "cleanse the horrible darkness of our mind" - The Aurora Consurgens4 says) I could have wished for nothing better than a real live guru, someone possessing superior knowledge and ability, who would have disentangled for me the involuntary creations of imagination. This task was undertaken by the figure of Philemon, whom in this respect I had willy-nilly to recognize as my psychagogue. And the fact was that he conveyed to me many an illuminating idea. - Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by C.G. Jung, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe, translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston, Vintage Book, New York, 1961, 1962, 1963, pages 175-177, 183-184.

        The famed psychologist, C. G. Jung, is here describing vividly a period in his life when he was afflicted by a very severe paranoid schizophrenic psychosis. He eventually recovered, but his return from madness took the form of a social recovery without insight, as opposed to one with insight. By this is meant that he never truly came to grips with the basic etiological cause of his madness, namely, his bisexual conflict and gender confusion. As a result of this lack of insight it can truthfully be stated that he never completely regained his full intellectual and emotional faculties, a truth borne out by the fact that his later theoretical conjectures veered off into the strange, occult world of mythology. This is certainly one of the major factors which played a role in his final estrangement from his erstwhile friend and admirer, Sigmund Freud.

686

       Hello, I will make this brief as I don't want to take up too much of your time.

       I have recently read up about Bearded Lady Disease online. I was diagnosed with Bipolar type one after psychotic episodes I had last year. Is it truly possible I could cure my disease with psychotherapy? I had strong male-male friendships while young that I broke off when they became too intimate.

       I had early and lasting sexual attraction to women but a powerful homosexual crush in high school.

       I put it out of my mind in college and later when a female love interest I was obsessed with rejected me I began growing psychotic.

       I have undergone such terrible pains with this disorder, and any advice you have for me (I will buy the book, but otherwise) would be greatly appreciated.

       Thank you very much.

        Sincerely, - [Name deleted for privacy reasons.]
Source: A personal communication.

        This is obviously a person afflicted with schizophrenia - the bearded lady disease, caused, as it invariably is, by intense bisexual conflict and gender confusion. "Bipolar type 1", as the patient was informed his condition is called, is just a newer term for "manic-depressive insanity", which it was known by in the 19th and early 20th century, and which later became "schizophrenia", thanks to its naming by Professor Eugen Bleuler.

       This case, however, should have a welcome outcome because the bisexual conflict/gender confusion conflict is now on a conscious level where it can be dealt with in intensive psychotherapy in order to resolve it, one way or another. By that is meant that the psychotherapy will lead either to the subject's comfortable acceptance of a homosexual lifestyle or else his maturation into heterosexuality.

       His phrase "I put it out of my mind in college" refers to his repression into the unconscious of his homosexual longings. With "the return of the repressed" ( S. Freud), these unconscious longings became powerful enough to fuel his "obsessive" interest in a "female love interest" (a reaction-formation against his powerful homoerotic longings) and his following slide into psychosis.

       Again, fortunately, the subject presently seems to have a very clear understanding of how his bisexual conflict has contributed so fundamentally to his psychological distress, and with the successful outcome of the intensive psychotherapy it has been strongly recommended he undertake, the "terrible pains" he has suffered "with this disorder" should happily cease once and for all, since they have been caused not by the homosexual longings themselves but by his repression of them.

685

       Finally, we have to consider the role of homosexuality in that most popular and best-known form of addiction, alcoholism. Both superficial and clinical observation concur in stressing the predominance of certain homosexual trends in alcoholics. Here belong such trends as the importance of drinking in common in certain male group activities, the particular kind of conviviality and fraternization displayed by the drinker and, on the defensive side, the manifestation of paranoid tendencies with their further psychotic elaboration. ...... However, psychoanalytic authors, by and large, have agreed on the importance of latent homosexuality in the dynamics of alcoholism. Theoretically, this could be expected in view of such trends as orality and narcissism - trends which certainly are shared by the alcoholic and the homosexual. Clinically, we are impressed by the fact that alcoholism appears as one of the significant patterns of behavior in individuals with a weak ego structure. A similar ego structure is found in most homosexuals, latent as well as manifest. Clinical observations of non-psychotic and psychotic alcoholics point to trends which may be considered as characteristic - though certainly not specific - of latent homosexuality, such trends as impotence, suspiciousness and jealousy. ...... The analytic insight into the personality structure of many alcoholics shows that they are characterized by narcissism and orality. They are individuals in whom difficult family constellations were responsible for oral frustrations in early childhood. Oral fixations resulted in a personality structure similar to the depressive personality with a low frustration tolerance. ...... As a result of this early development, male individuals tend to turn away from the frustrating mother to the father; that is, they substitute an inverted for the positive Oedipal constellation. In this way the basis is laid for future homosexuality.

       Abraham was the first to recognize the significance of latent homosexuality in the etiology of alcohol addiction. He spoke of men turning to alcohol as a means of gaining an increased feeling of manliness and of flattering their complex of masculinity. He drew attention to characteristic mannerisms of alcoholics and to special drinking customs among such groups as university students - all of them being typical latent homosexual characteristics. He also drew an interesting comparison between the structure of alcoholics and perverts.22 Juliusburger discussed the relation of homosexuality to inebriety and pointed out that periodic stages of anxiety may result from strong latent homosexual impulses. According to his observations, dipsomania is a manifestation of such unconscious homosexual drives, periodically breaking through the barrier of repression. Anxiety which manifests itself at the beginning of a dipsomanic attack arises from the impact of an unconscious homosexual wish; in our modern terminology, we would describe it as a reaction of the ego to the breaking through of the id impulses.23 ...... Weyl (1926, 1944), who has made an extensive study of alcoholism and has developed some original ideas on the subject, stressed the role of homosexuality and the destruction of homosexual sublimations. The latter became replaced by superficial sociability and anal-sadistic regression. ...... Knight observed, in his alcoholic patients, a conscious or almost conscious fear of being regarded as feminine. They showed impotence and ejaculation praecox and a typical dichotomy is their love and sex life.25 I can also confirm his observation that women with a strong homosexual component resort to drinking as a means of identifying and competing with men. In the least complicated alcoholic psychosis, alcoholic delirium, we may observe elements of slightly disguised heterosexuality or homosexuality. Tausk pointed out, as far back as 1915, the analogy of structure between the typical occupational delirium and the occupational dream. He interpreted alcoholic delirium as the expression of sexual excitement in patients who are impotent and, at the same time, it is an attempt to sublimate their homosexualiity.26 The most complete, to my knowledge, analysis of a case of delirium tremens was published in 1926 by Kielholz. The analysis confirmed his former findings concerning the importance of the homosexual component in alcoholics. Clear homosexual and sadomasochistic tendencies in the patient were instrumental in shaping frightening hallucinations of individuals who were, for the most part, objects of his emotional and libidinal attitudes. Some of these fancied attacks on the patient had the characteristics of direct homosexual aggression. Kielholz pointed out the connections between the mass character of animal hallucinations and the deep libidinal links binding the drinker to his male drinking friends.27

       The threatening and castrating character of the hallucinations in alcoholic delirium was the object of a special study by Bromberg and Schilder. They described the dismembering tendency of these experiences which they found in the foreground of the clinical picture. The persecutors were chiefly other men - soldiers, drinking companions and the like. The choice of these persons was motivated by latent homosexual tendencies.28

       Paranoid elements may already appear in the acute stages of so-called alcoholic hallucinosis. Voices accuse the patient of various misdeeds, among them not infrequently homosexual activities, and threaten him with a punishment which often amounts to symbolic or undisguised rape and castration.

       In further clinical development, both the delirium and the hallucinosis may evolve into a chronic paranoid psychosis. It is generally believed that, in such cases, alcoholism was the manifestation of a latent or otherwise not recognized schizophrenia. It is easy to recognize typical defense mechanisms, used by the ego in its struggle against the breaking through of homosexuality, in the ideas of jealousy. They are a classic feature in many a chronic alcoholic and reach their peak in a paranoid psychosis.

       The struggle against homosexuality may be covered up by the ego in various ways so that, in certain cases, we may see in succession a whole gamut of defense mechanisms. Obsessive compulsive symptomatology may be followed by paranoid episodes until, finally, aggressive homosexuality may break through under the impact of alcoholic intoxication. In such patients, inebriety assumes the characteristics of so-called pathological intoxication, with outbursts of violent aggression and homosexual acts or, at least, overt impulses and phantasies. - (Ibid, Quotation 681, Gustav Bychowski, Homosexuality and Psychosis, pages 117-123.)

        From a study of the multitude of clinical examples delineated above, it is impossible not to conclude that the factor of repressed, or latent, homosexuality plays the same basic etiological role in alcoholic addiction as it does in all the other previously cited addictions. The choice of which particular addiction, or addictions, is unconsciously "chosen" by the addict to deal with his or her "bearded lady" conflict, most likely depends on that individual's family background and environment. For example, an addiction-prone person raised in a family where alcoholic beverages are regularly consumed as part of the daily social routine, would theoretically be more susceptible to choosing alcohol rather than, for example, heroin, as his or her drug of choice to alleviate the severe tension and anxiety caused by the bisexual conflict.
Basically, neurotic addiction of any type is an attempt at self-medication for the sole purpose of lessening the unremitting pain caused by malignant anxiety - the anxiety which is the direct conversion product stemming from the repression of the afflicted person's homosexual cravings and strivings. More simply stated the drugs taken by the addict temporarily ameliorate the toxic effect (affect) of the undischarged homosexual libido.

684

       The personality structure of drug addicts shows in many instances, elements of latent or manifest homosexuality. ...... The homosexual deviation in cocaine addicts was first described by Hartman in extensive clinical studies.18 ...... In certain cases, addiction is but the manifestation of a latent or circumscribed psychosis. In an observation of Benedek, the patient wanted to destroy her feminine body which she hated. This wish had emerged in her adolescence. She drank heavily and stuffed herself with large quantities of food. The drive toward bodily self-destruction served as a defense against repressed homosexuality. ...... In this context, I would like to mention briefly my own observation of compulsive bulimia in a schizophrenic girl. Here analysis demonstrated clearly that the compulsive eating served the purpose of re-establishing the original oral identification with her mother; at the same time it meant the destruction of her feminine loveliness, since it transformed her into a shapeless mass of flesh and fat. In this way the patient was defending herself desperately not only against any heterosexual potentialities but, on a deeper level, against the narcissistic homosexual love for the mother and her substitutes. ...... In my observations of neurotic obesity, I became aware of the role played by repressed homosexuality in my predominantly female patients. One of them, in addition to compulsive overeating, developed during analysis addiction to benzedrine which led her to take, in complete secrecy, immense quantities of the drug. She then displayed a transient paranoid psychosis in which the analyst became her chief persecutor with evil sexual intentions. The homosexual element could easily be detected in this heterosexually oriented delusional formation. ...... Among my woman patients who were addicts, denial of femininity was a prominent feature; it manifested itself by amenorrhea and avoidance of feminine grace and apparel. In homosexual episodes, patients played the aggressive masculine roles. In their heterosexual relations they showed complete vaginal anaesthesia and, as one of my patients put it: they did not "discover" their vagina until a fairly advanced stage of analysis. (Ibid, Quotation 681, Gustav Bychowski, Homosexuality and Psychosis, pages 114-116.)

        We can see from the above examples cited by Dr. Bychowski of patients in the throes of extreme emotional and physical distress, that the underlying cause of their distress, no matter how ostensibly different their outward symptoms may appear, is always the direct result of the inner conflict between their masculine and feminine selves, or between their heterosexual and homosexual strivings. In drug addiction, anorexia, bulimia and "neurotic" obesity the malignant factor of severe bisexual conflict and gender confusion is invariably to be found as the source fueling the pathology underlying the various symptoms. And as will be further illustrated in the next quotation, number 685, every case of alcoholism likewise falls into the same category as each of the above mentioned symptoms of mental illness, and has precisely the same pathological root..

683

       Elements of homosexuality may be included in the structure of various forms of depression. They are evident in some cases of paranoid depressive reaction in the period of involution. Here the paranoid ideas not infrequently represent a projection of long-repressed homosexual fantasies; the patient either feels directly accused of homosexual acts or threatened by persecutors who want to assault him, make him into a male (or female as the case may be) prostitute, etc. ...... To be sure, some germ of paranoid delusion can be observed in almost every case of depression of long duration. This was already recorded by that great expert on melancholy, Robert Burton. "The melancholy are always aggressive. They cannot speak but they must bite. But they are unaware of their own aggression and feel attacked instead. As they that drink wine think all runs around when it is in their own brain."15 ...... Under certain circumstances, it may even be possible that a young person is preconsciously or even consciously aware of his sexual deviation but tries to deny it to himself, usually under the impact of horror aroused by a feeling of guilt. In these cases, which naturally have become less and less frequent due to the progress of general enlightenment, we have the rare opportunity of relieving an individual from depression by means of a simple and thorough explanation. It will depend upon a variety of circumstances whether we should then attempt to correct the inversion by means of analytic therapy ...... We need more detailed psychoanalytic observations to understand the role of latent homosexuality in the structure of depression. (Ibid, QUOTATION 681, Gustav Bychowski, Homosexuality and Pyschosis, pages 108,109.).

        "Latent homosexuality" always leads to bisexual conflict and gender confusion in the individual, which condition, if not satisfactorily resolved either through psychotherapy or more rarely self-insight, invariably leads to mental illness, one of the many manifestations of which is depression..

       The bisexual conflict neutralizes the person's libido to such an extent that all sexual satisfactions are muted and the afflicted individual becomes, in essence, sexually starved. At its core, depression is caused by the absence of libidinal happiness and wellbeing, directly attributable to the unresolved bisexual conflict. Or, to express it more succinctly, in the simple but intuitive words of an unidentified young French girl, "Passion is always the sister of joy." If a person lacks this "passion" (sexual) due to a severe bisexual conflict (latent homosexuality), there can be no genuine happiness, or joy, in his or her emotional and physical life, and consequently the malignant psychological process we call "depression" will gain the upper hand.

682

       Passive homosexual feelings began to dominate the transference situation and were warded off by fleeting ideas of reference and persecution. I shall return to this observation at a later point in the discussion of the structure of latent psychosis. For future reference, I shall call this patient Michael.

       Such changes in the body ego, when further advanced, may result in the sensation of transformation into a female. Incidentally, we observe with much less frequency the delusion of transformation into a male in a woman. It would be incorrect to assume that such changes occur only in advanced clinical stages of frank schizophrenia. We observe them in initial stages of ambulatory or even latent schizophrenics, when we have the opportunity to study their structure and various shadings.

        Generally speaking, we may say that these patients [male] begin to feel, as it were, an invasion by a feminine body image substituting in parts for their masculine self. Since the process, in my opinion, consists in the maternal introject trying to replace the paternal image, it is natural that, in most cases, the change starts with the breasts. They seem to grow and to assume the feminine shape. One may say that the patient's body ego tends to revert to its original identification with the maternal breast. - (Ibid, Quotation 681, Gustav Bychowski, Homosexuality and Psychosis, pages 100-101.)

        The inescapable factor of bisexual conflict and gender confusion, which is clearly observable in all schizophrenic persons, and, to a lesser extent, in less severely mentally ill persons, is precisely demonstrated by the above-quoted case history. This example could be multiplied a million-fold in both men and women who have been fortunate enough to experience similar psychoanalytic depth psychotherapy, if undertaken to help them cope with relentless emotional distress.

681

       There is hardly any need to multiply these examples. This and similar observations led me to the conclusion that the latent homosexual constellation is a constant and most significant element of latent schizophrenia. This constellation centers around a primitive maternal identification [in the male] which, by virtue of splitting, remains isolated from the rest of the ego field. Among these defensive measures of the ego, we may detect narcissistic withdrawal, secondary hostility and bouts of active homosexuality. Owing to the dissociation of the passive segment of the ego field, the rest of the ego is able to develop a deceptively "normal," seemingly realistic and even pseudo-masculine behavior while passivity, masochism and the megalomania of primary narcissism remain confined to the dissociated segment of the ego. This facade may be maintained until the moment when, due to some precipitating event, a breakdown of ego defenses reveals a crack in the total ego structure and results in manifest psychosis.

        Psychoanalytic observations of schizophrenics subjected to insulin shock therapy provide another opportunity for an understanding of the role of latent homosexuality in the origin of paranoid schizophrenia. In particular, these observations illustrate the important role played by the homosexual disappointment and the homosexual panic. The cathartic discharge provoked by the insulin coma creates a release of repressed libidinal impulses. The ambivalent homosexual attitude becomes split into its two components, with the positive one invested ideally in the transference reaction and thus accessible to analytic interpretation and working through.

        Psychoanalytic investigations have demonstrated the affinity between homosexuality and the schizophrenic break. In certain complex cases of latent homosexuality, the counter-cathexis built by the ego in order to maintain the dissociation of the psychotic core from the rest of the ego, is so precarious that the psychotic invasion occurs, as it were, spontaneously and periodically...... The kinship between schizophrenia and homosexuality is based on certain characteristics of ego formation. In my study of the ego of homosexuals, I have shown that the ego weakness characteristic of them is related to the ego weakness characteristic of schizophrenics. I came to the following conclusion: "The homosexual [male] does not pursue the union with the woman, since, in its deep core, his ego has never separated from her. For the same reason, his ego has never really abandoned his prenatal narcissism and he has never acquired the feeling of virility. As a final consequence, he has never really been born into the society of men." ....... Exaggerated narcissistic cathexis is a common characteristic of the ego of the homosexual and the ego of the schizophrenic. - Homosexuality and Psychosis, Gustav Bychowski, in Perversions, Psychodynamics and Therapy, edited by Sandor Lorand, M.D. and Michael Balint, M.D., Gramercy Press, New York, copyright, 1956, by Random House, Inc., pages 105-7.

        We can once again observe in the above examples how homosexuality and schizophrenia are inextricably intertwined, the one - schizophrenia - being the negation of the other - homosexuality. This is invariably the case. Underlying and fueling schizophrenic symptomatology can always be found repressed homosexual desires, fantasies and concerns.

        Furthermore, the same equation holds true for all the other more common manifestations of functional mental illness, including depression, mania, alcoholism and drug addiction, as we shall see more convincingly elucidated in QUOTATIONS 683, 684 and 685. Repressed bisexual conflict and gender confusion are the sine qua non underlying every case of severe emotional disturbance, in all races, cultures and in both sexes.

680

       "Schreber's basic bisexuality had developed into a true manifest ambisexuality, male and female potentials being equally matched. Thus he developed fantasies of self-impregnation while he was acting the part of the woman having intercourse with himself."6.

        This penetrating reanalysis of Schreber's material reminds us of elements described in some former detailed clinical observations of schizophrenia, in particular the classic publications of Nunberg.7

        The role of ambisexuality, with its far-reaching consequences in the clinical picture of advanced schizophrenia, has been evident for a long time. From a clinical point of view, one should bear in mind that Schreber not only went through periods of deep paranoid aggression and extensive elaboration but also long periods of catatonia. We know especially, from detailed observations of catatonic attacks and catatonic stupor, that fantasies of self-procreation frequently play an important part..

        It is also generally recognized that confusion about one's own sexual identity is a frequent and important part of schizophrenic symptomatology. It may occur at a relatively early stage of the illness and, at times, may be detected by psychological testing prior to becoming manifest clinically. In my opinion, this symptom reflects a significant change in the patient's ego and may be described as a struggle of the feminine and masculine identification or, in ther words, generally speaking, of the paternal versus the maternal introject. - "Elimination of Guilt as a Function of Perversions," by Ritske Le Coultre, M.D., in Perversions - Psychodynamics and Therapy, edited by Sandor Lorand, M.D, and Michael Balint, M.D., Gramercy Books, New York, copyright, 1956, by Random House, Inc., New York, p. 98,99.

        The above quotation provides further unassailable evidence of the key etiological role that bisexual conflict and gender confusion plays in the formation of schizophrenic symptomatology. All schizophrenic persons suffer from the bearded lady disease, a devastating, mentally destabilizing conflict between their male and female selves. In truth, all mentally ill patients suffer from the bearded lady disease, some more, some less, and the different stages and degrees of their illness (see "catatonic stupor" above) have been arbitrarily labeled with different names, but basically their illness is the direct product of but one disease process, and therefore can be designated by whatever arbitrary name(s) one wishes.

679

       Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher served with the combined British-Prussian army that was about to whip Napoleon Bonaparte on June 18, 1815, at Waterloo. But the field marshal didn't get into that fray. Immediately after he made a short speech to his troops, he was taken into protective custody and hustled away from the front. He later retired as the most highly decorated marshal in the Prussian Army. But what he said on that day in that short speech was he'd just discovered he was pregnant and about to give birth to an elephant. - (From a newspaper clipping, author not noted.)

        It is very obvious the field marshal was having a psychotic (schizophrenic) breakdown when he publicly stated he was pregnant and ready to give birth to an elephant. That he was suffering from a severe case of bisexual conflict/gender confusion is glaringly apparent and marks him as definitely afflicted with schizophrenia, the bearded lady disease. It would be interesting to know if he ever recovered from his psychosis or remained insane for the remainder of his life.