Less Than the Sum of Its Parts

Reviews the book, Homosexuality and Psychology, Psychiatry, and Counseling edited by Wayne R. Dynes and Stephen Donaldson (1992). The collection provides neither a strong grounding in any one area of psychology, psychiatry, or counseling nor a meaningful synthesis of the three. The book's shortcomings are immediately evident in the Introduction. Instead of clearly defining the purpose of the collection, the editors' remarks ramble through several aspects of homosexuality. Most perplexing is an apparently cross-cultural and historical taxonomy of male homosexual relationships based on sex role, age, and sexual behavior (e.g., passive vs active roles). The editors include chapters on some important topics, however, the anthology's offerings are not consistent with the book's stated goals. For example, the editors choose to feature the coming-out model by Troiden, which is neither unique nor definitive, sharing a good deal of common ground with other stage theories. A brief chapter by Sophie on counseling lesbians seems a particularly weak inclusion given the size and scope of the activity in this area, as the only chapters that deal primarily with lesbians, these two make up only eight percent of the selections. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)