Prescription for Heterosexuality: Sexual Citizenship in the Cold War Era

INTRODUCTION

Introduction The January 17, 1966, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (jama) included a “Special Communication” from psychiatrist William F. Sheeley, the former head of the American Psychiatric Association’s General PractitionerEducationProgram,acommitteedevotedtopreparingphysicians to deal with the psychological problems of their patients in general practice. Sheeley addressed jama readers on the topic “Sex and the Practicing Physician .” “Since ancient times and before,” he began, “people have turned to the family physician for help with problems a≠ecting their sex lives.” In current times, Sheeley continued, distressed patients regularly consulted their trusted family doctors for help with frigidity, impotence, premarital counseling , and infertility. While these sexual matters were inherently private, laws and customs regarding marriage and divorce attested to the fact that “they also concern society at large.” This, Sheeley suggested, was important for the physician to keep in mind, for it underscored the importance of sexuality to the overall security of the American public. “That basic unit without which few societies can survive— ​ the family— ​ depends upon discipline and control of sexual behavior,” he explained. “Without such control, the family soon lewis—final pages 1 2 introduction breaks down, and soon thereafter the whole society comes crashing down— ​ like the mighty Roman Empire, which is no more.” The family physician, Sheeley insisted, was the person who was “properly equipped” to stem the tide of this disaster by “know[ing] how to anticipate and how to prevent,” as well as how to treat, sexual dysfunction in his patients. Personal pleasure, family happiness, and national stability were all at stake.1 Although few others used such dramatic language, Sheeley was not the only medical author anxious about sex, the family, and national security in the mid-­ twentieth century. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, physicians writing in American medical journals expressed their concern over increasing cases of sexual dysfunction and infertility among their patients, a growing acceptance of premarital sexual experimentation, and a rising divorce rate. In their estimation, not only were all of these developments linked, but they also pointed to a broader moral decay that was taking hold in American society . Cold War rhetoric regarding “American values” and “enemies within” often worked its way into this discussion. If, as physician H. T. McGuire asserted in a discussion before the Medical Society of Delaware, “the family unit is the keystone of the arch of our democracy,” then its preservation was “of inestimable value.”2 Sexuality, citizenship, and national stability were all linked, and American physicians had no intention of letting the United States go the way of the Roman Empire. Medical practitioners in the United States— ​ especially family physicians — ​ thus situated themselves as the guardians of the sexual well-­ being of Americans in the early decades of the Cold War. Physical and mental health, of course, was paramount. But physicians argued that understanding the link between the body, the mind, and sex was critical to ensuring the overall health of the patient. Sexual dysfunction might suggest that an individual was either physically or mentally unwell. Likewise, proper sexual function indicated that a patient was healthy, that his or her marriage was likely to be successful, and that any children that he or she might have would be reared by happy and well-­ adjusted parents. Physicians asserted that the performance of healthy heterosexual gender and sexual roles— ​ as evidenced by a satisfying sexual relationship— ​ was crucial to the establishment and maintenance of a stable marriage. As gynecologist and specialist in family issues Nadina Kavinoky had explained to medical students in the early 1940s, “ignorance of what constitutes a normal sex pattern has been at the bottom of many unsuccessful marriages.”3 In the subsequent decades, physicians sought to remedy lewis—final pages 2 introduction 3 this problem. In medical journals and elsewhere, they insisted that educating couples about sexuality would do much to help stabilize many marriages and, by extension, American society as a whole. Presumably, sexually satisfied partners were more likely to stay married, to produce well-­ adjusted families, and to form the building blocks of a moral and stable national community. Written during the uncertain times of the early Cold War, the articles, editorials, and letters to the editors of various medical journals demonstrated that physicians worried that “unhealthy,” “maladjusted,” and even extra­ marital sexual behavior was just as threatening to American society as were the Soviets and their nuclear bombs. Some physicians even went...