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At the same time, patients support each other with the reassurance of belonging to a sympathetic group. Says Dr. Hadden: "Seldom have I seen stronger group spirit. After severe social rejection, the progress of any member in any area has a tonic effect on the whole group. And when a member begins to make progress toward a heterosexual adjustment, the group affords remarkable support."
Dates & Marriage. Members of the group interpret each other's dreams, with only such guidance from Dr. Hadden as is absolutely necessary. When their hostility toward parents, and especially their mothers, has been worked through, they start dating girls. "It is reassuring," says Dr. Hadden, "that there is no haste to rush into marriage, nor have we observed any periods of heterosexual promiscuity. Courtships have been on a mature basis."
Of 32 patients who have stayed with the program for at least 20 sessions, Dr. Hadden rates twelve as having achieved an exclusively heterosexual adjustment, and he says "other neurotic traits have improved or disappeared." He scores ten others as markedly improved, ten as failures. Among the twelve most successful cases, five men have been happily married for up to five years. Two patients were already married, using their marriages as cover-ups when they began treatment—one because he was being blackmailed, the other because he had been arrested. These marriages were saved, and the wife of the man who was arrested is now glad that she dropped the idea of a divorce.
The psychiatrist's most important assets in treating homosexuality, says Dr. Hadden, are an understanding attitude toward his patients and confidence that their illness can indeed be treated.
*Dr. Hadden has never had enough female homosexual patients to form a group. "In general," he says, "the females are far less unhappy than the men, and are under less social pressure.