Manchester University Press
3 From sodomy to homosexuality
Abstract
This chapter will trace the emergence of Soviet sexological science – sexopathology – in the 1960s and the medical discourses on sex and homosexuality which its practitioners generated. The founders of sexopathology framed its importance in terms of the economy of the population: they argued that the fulfilling sexual lives of Soviet people were important for their marriage stability and labour productivity. Some sexologists treated homosexual patients, inviting them to confess and speak about their desires in the privacy of consultation rooms, and provided psychotherapy for them. These sexologists published their research on the treatment of homosexuality, sharing their knowledge with colleagues and even attempting to institutionalise their practice of treating such ‘ailments’. Some sexologists demonstrated a lively awareness of Eastern and Central European sexological trends. Although sexopathology and the concomitant medicalisation of homosexuality certainly represented a significant departure from Stalinist repressive approaches to the issue, the powers of the new science in the 1960s were too weak to grab full control of the homosexual body. Soviet sexology was underdeveloped and its pioneering practitioners did not advocate for decriminalisation of sodomy.
Abstract
This chapter will trace the emergence of Soviet sexological science – sexopathology – in the 1960s and the medical discourses on sex and homosexuality which its practitioners generated. The founders of sexopathology framed its importance in terms of the economy of the population: they argued that the fulfilling sexual lives of Soviet people were important for their marriage stability and labour productivity. Some sexologists treated homosexual patients, inviting them to confess and speak about their desires in the privacy of consultation rooms, and provided psychotherapy for them. These sexologists published their research on the treatment of homosexuality, sharing their knowledge with colleagues and even attempting to institutionalise their practice of treating such ‘ailments’. Some sexologists demonstrated a lively awareness of Eastern and Central European sexological trends. Although sexopathology and the concomitant medicalisation of homosexuality certainly represented a significant departure from Stalinist repressive approaches to the issue, the powers of the new science in the 1960s were too weak to grab full control of the homosexual body. Soviet sexology was underdeveloped and its pioneering practitioners did not advocate for decriminalisation of sodomy.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Acknowledgements viii
- Abbreviations x
- Introduction 1
- 1 Homosexuality in the Soviet GULAG (1956–59) 23
- 2 Same-sex desire and sex education under Khrushchev (1956–64) 51
- 3 From sodomy to homosexuality 77
- 4 Soviet legal and criminological debates on the decriminalisation of homosexuality (1959–75) 133
- 5 Between disease and crime 170
- Conclusion 207
- Bibliography 224
- Index 243
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Acknowledgements viii
- Abbreviations x
- Introduction 1
- 1 Homosexuality in the Soviet GULAG (1956–59) 23
- 2 Same-sex desire and sex education under Khrushchev (1956–64) 51
- 3 From sodomy to homosexuality 77
- 4 Soviet legal and criminological debates on the decriminalisation of homosexuality (1959–75) 133
- 5 Between disease and crime 170
- Conclusion 207
- Bibliography 224
- Index 243
