Conversations about Psychology and Sexual Orientation

Chapter 1: Conceptual Frameworks

Chapter 1 Conceptual Frameworks Janis S. Bohan and Glenda M. Russell Consider these quandaries: • A client enters psychotherapy seeking to find his “true” sexual orientation . He has had satisfying sexual and emotional relationships with women for many years but now finds himself attracted to a man. • Researchers design a study to investigate the relationship between mental health and the level of disclosure of lesbian identity. A potential participant in the study demurs, insisting that the label “lesbian ” does not match her sense of self, although she is in a longterm , exclusive relationship with another woman. • A law intended to ensure equal rights for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals is challenged by a right-wing group, which insists that sexual orientation is not a genuine axis of identity, that it can change, and that it is sometimes actively chosen. In support of its position, the group cites findings from cross-cultural investigations and psychological research. In certain domains of discourse regarding sexual orientation, we can find vigorous attempts to address quandaries such as these. Most such attempts lie outside the field of psychology, but increasingly they are finding their way into the psychological literature. At the heart of many such discussions is an appeal to a distinction between essentialist and social constructionist perspectives on sexual orientation. This book is intended to enter into those discussions. 11 Essentialism, Social Constructionism, and Sexual Orientation Our aim in this book is to explore the implications and ramifications of two very distinctive perspectives on psychological understandings of sexual orientation. In this chapter, we introduce certain core principles of essentialist and social constructionist1 understandings of sexual orientation ; these principles serve as a framework for a more detailed discussion of the implications of each approach for psychological praxis. Actually, it is oversimplified to speak of “an approach” in either case. Each of these perspectives entails a very convoluted set of principles, the complexity of which cannot be adequately addressed in the space available here. However , we hope to provide sufficient introduction of key elements to ground later discussions of implications of these approaches. If we are successful in that attempt, we will have tools to unpack the complexity of the issues raised here, as well as to raise others. Ontology and Epistemology It may be helpful to frame this discussion in terms of two intertwined but discernibly distinct levels of analysis: the ontological and the epistemological . The ontological domain addresses the question of what is: what is the nature of reality? In the case of sexual orientation, the pertinent question is this: in what sense can sexual orientation be said to exist as an actual element of reality? The epistemological domain, on the other hand, has to do with questions of knowledge: what is knowledge, how is knowledge attained, what are the criteria that warrant what we take for knowledge? In what follows, we first examine the essentialist and the constructionist perspectives on sexual orientation, paying attention to the ontological and the epistemological components of each. We then inquire briefly as to the implications of each as it is applied to the sorts of questions that occupy psychology. 12 j a n i s s . b o h a n a n d g l e n d a m . r u s s e l l Essentialism and Sexual Orientation The Ontological Domain The essentialist perspective on sexual orientation is grounded in an ontology of realism—that is, the assumption that the categories employed to discuss reality in fact describe actual phenomena that exist independent of our understandings of them. Thus, from an essentialist perspective, sexual orientation exists as a free-standing quality of individuals , an essential element of individual identity, much as one’s sex, gender,2 or ethnic identity.3 Sexual orientation identity, in this view, is present as a component of identity, whether or not it is acknowledged by the individual, observed by others, or given meaning by the culture. It is a fundamental and definitive axis of each individual’s core self, regardless of how that self may be manifested (or hidden) in varying situations . In addition, essentialist ontology argues that the meaning of sexual orientation is ahistorical and universal. Essentialism asserts that sexual orientation as an element of individual identity has existed throughout history and across cultures; in every time and locale, the sex of one’s partner (or of others to whom one is attracted emotionally and/or...