Charles Socarides - Biography

Biography

In 1935, at the age of thirteen, after reading a biography of Sigmund Freud, Charles Socarides decided to become a physician and psychoanalyst. In 1952, 17 years later at the age of 30, Socarides graduated from Harvard College and received his certificate in Psychoanalytic Medicine from what is now the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Socarides authored or co-authored numerous books and psychoanalytic articles. He appeared on news programs such as Dateline NBC, 60 Minutes, and Larry King Live to discuss his work. He was a past-President of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which he helped found in 1992. He was on the board of directors of the Margaret S. Mahler Psychiatric Research Foundation. He was a member of the International Advisory Committee, the Second Delphi International Psychoanalytic Symposium, held in Delphi, Greece in 1988, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine, and the International Psychoanalytical Association. Socarides was a life member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, where he chaired a discussion group, and an affiliate member of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, United Kingdom.

Socarides was a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in New York City from 1954 until his death. He treated patients for homosexuality throughout his career. He reported that "about a third" of his patients became heterosexual after treatment. He taught Psychiatry at Columbia University and the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, and was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, from 1978 to 1996. He lectured on his research findings in London at the Anna Freud Centre, the Portman Clinic, the Tavistock Clinic, and before the British Psychoanalytical Society.

Much of Socarides' career was devoted to studying homosexuality. He has been grouped with Irving Bieber, Lionel Ovesey, and Edmund Bergler as one of the most influential writers on male homosexuality. Socarides postulated that homosexuality was a neurotic adaptation, and that it could be treated. Socarides wrote that male homosexuality typically develops in the first two years of life, during the pre-Oedipal stage of the boy's personality formation. In Socarides's view, it is caused by a controlling mother who prevents her son from separating from her, and a weak or rejecting father who does not serve as a role model for his son or support his efforts to escape from the mother.

Socarides was the father of five children: a son, Richard Socarides, from his first marriage; a daughter, also from his first marriage; two children from his second marriage; and one from his fourth marriage, with Claire Alford Socarides. Richard is openly gay and was Bill Clinton's Senior Advisor for Public Liaison for gay and lesbian issues.

In 1992, Socarides met neuroscientist Simon LeVay, who interviewed him for Born That Way?, a British documentary produced by Jeremy Taylor for Windfall Films. According to LeVay, he asked Socarides what had caused his son Richard to become homosexual. Socarides then, "...became incensed and said, among other things, 'How would you like it if I asked you about your HIV status?'" This part of the interview was excised at Socarides' request.

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