Jonathan

This is a psychoanalytically informed autobiography of a scientist with a homosexual history who rejects gay liberation views of male homosexuality. Rather he sees it as a pathological developmental disorder, very much in line with the classic psychoanalytical view. A notable landmark is Jonathan's development of close non-sexual male-male friendship of an intensity rare in this society. This book is a sensitive commentary by a polymath on the dilemmas in the acquisition of masculinity. It shows the falseness of either-or thinking with airtight categories of straight & gay. He instructs us: "homosexual" is an adjective, not a noun. And he demonstrates the scientific absurdity of the idea that gay people are "born that way." The book consists of many stories: personal history, family history, cultural history, intellectual history, & a tour de force on art history.