Homophobia and Its Consequences

This workshop focuses on the experiences of boys who grow up to be gay. Drawing on work with adult gay men and adolescents in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, the psychological consequences of empathic failures, rejections, and micro aggressions during early childhood, especially the Oedipal stage, will be addressed. Links between these early disruptions and internalized homophobia in adolescence and adulthood will be highlighted. The unique challenges faced by gay adolescents in a society that does not fully recognize them will also be discussed. Video clips from television and film will be used to illustrate common experiences of gay youth, adolescents, and adults including experiences of shame, self-hatred, self-realization, coming out and romance. Clinical examples will be used to demonstrate the relevance of these developmental theories to psychotherapy. Dr. Grossman is psychoanalyst and psychologist with over 30 years of clinical experience in a variety of settings. After working at a private counseling center for 4 1/2 years, he opened his private practice in 1984 as a licensed marriage and family therapist. While completing his doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, he trained at Operation Concern (later known as New Leaf), an outpatient clinic for the LGBT community; Mt. Zion Crisis Clinic, a 24 hour psychiatric emergency clinic, and the Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Unit, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Grossman became licensed as a psychologist in 1991. In addition to private practice, he has worked as an Attending & Consulting Psychologist on the HIV Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at San Francisco General Hospital from 1992 to 1996. Watch Dr. Grossman's lecture, Pink Parenting: Creating a Facilitating Environment for Gay & Lesbian Teens at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNhwCjqnl3I&t=36s