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Theories of Sexual Orientation; a Reappraisal

Archives of General Psychiatry, 51:432; 1994.

To the Editor.----The article by Byne and Parsons (1) in the March 1993 issue of Archives proposed an interesting "interactionist model" of sexual orientation after a thorough review of the biologic research in this area. While they criticized the biologists (and to a much lesser degree the psychosocial theories) for not integrating the two theoretical approaches, they too seem to be inflexible for not allowing for the possibility that not all homosexual individuals need to necessarily fit into one model (including theirs).

Inconsistencies in the data may be reflective of different subpopulations of homosexuals, some who's sexual orientation may be biologically determined, some psychocially determined, and some who are better described by an interactionist model. Some patients with hypertension may have purely genetic causes, some diet, some an interaction of the two etc.

We agree with their statement that it is imperitive to "resist the urge to search for simplistic explanations" (p.236), and stress the need to be flexible when considering the determints of sexual orientation for any one individual- a point also relevant to clinical work. Because the topic of homosexuality is emotionally charged there may be a tendency to try to package all homosexual behavior into one model (even if it permits interactions among other models). Allowance for individual variation would do well for a field where the bias among the workers is also varied and where the data is still inconclusive.

Douglas Berger, M.D.

Hiroyuki Suematsu, M.D.

Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine, Tokyo University Branch Hospital

Yutaka Ono, M.D.

Keio University Department of Psychiatry, Shinanomachi, Shinju-ku, Tokyo Japan

1. Byne w, Parsons B. Human Sexual Orientaion, The Biologic Theories Reappraised. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1993; 50:228-239.