Personality characteristics of homosexual men suffering from sexually transmitted diseases.

This investigation is the most recent of a series of heuristic studies of patients attending special clinics for sexually transmitted diseases (Wells, 1968, 1969, 1970; Wells and Schofield, 1970).Apart from the general interest and value of building up a broad picture of the social and psychological characteristics of that vast body of patients, studies of certain groups, such as prostitutes and highly promiscuous women, have a special interest in terms of their epidemio- logical significance and problems of management.The present study on male homosexuals contributes mainly to the former purpose.The particular interest of this group lies in the fact that from the psychiatric viewpoint they form a less selected sample than those who get into trouble with the police, are referred or volunteer for psychiatric treatment or, as is the more recent trend, are contactable through clubs and 'freedom' or 'liberation' groups.By contrast with these more readily accessible groups on whom most previous research has been focused, the attenders at special clinics tend to be 'adjusted' in the sense that they are now far less under the threat of persecution and are not seeking to be 'cured' of exhibiting their new-found freedom.In such circumstances, one might expect them to reflect the essential character- istics of homosexuality more truly than individuals subjected to the distorting pressures, both legal and social, which existed until quite recently.Cattell and Morony (1962) used the American- developed "16 Personality Factor Questionnaire' on two groups of Australian homosexuals-one group in prison after conviction for the offence, and the others located through social workers and by the 'infiltration' of homosexual cliques.They concluded that the members of the two groups were 'essentially the same species', and thus implied that their results were of relevance to both penal and therapeutic considerations of homosexuals.They found both groups to be more extroverted than neurotic patients, but 'much nearer to the various members of the clinical class ofneurotics than to sociopaths, criminals,