Sigmund Freud wrote a forward-thinking and sensitive letter to a distressed mother whose son was gay.

In 1935, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud received a letter from a woman who indicated that her son was gay but could not outwardly admit to it.

She asked Freud if there were treatments he could suggest to cure her son of his homosexuality. However, Freud had a better idea as to how the woman could deal with her son’s homosexuality.

Despite the illegality of homosexuality at the time, and society’s contempt for it, Freud’s response to this woman is surprising. However, being the forward-thinking father of psychoanalysis, it’s perhaps to be expected.

In the letter, Freud does suggest that, technically, “treatment” for homosexuality may be possible, but says the result “cannot be predicted.”

The letter currently appears at the Museum of Sexology part of the Wellcome Collection in London.

The letter, originally written in 1935, was given to Alfred Kinsey – father of the Kinsey Scale – and was later reproduced in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1951.

Attached at the end of the letter seems to be a note from the mother in question:

“Dear Dr Kinsey,

Herewith I enclose a letter from a Great and Good man which you may retain.

From a Grateful Mother.”

Dear Mrs [Erased],

I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual. I am most impressed by the fact that you do not mention this term yourself in your information about him. May I question you why you avoid it? 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 a cruelty, too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.

By asking me if I can help, you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies, which are present in every homosexual in the majority of cases it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual. The result of treatment cannot be predicted.

What analysis can do for your son runs on a different line. If he is unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, inhibited in his social life, analysis may bring him harmony, peace of mind, full efficiency, whether he remains a homosexual or gets changed. If you make up your mind he should have analysis with me — I don’t expect you will — he has to come over to Vienna. I have no intention of leaving here. However, don’t neglect to give me your answer.

Sincerely yours with best wishes,

Freud

P.s. I did not find it difficult to read your handwriting. Hope you will not find my writing and my English a harder task.