Page "Conversion therapy" Paragraph 9

Gay people could seldom be convinced that heterosexual sex would provide them with the same pleasure they derived from homosexual sex.

Patients often wanted to become heterosexual for reasons Freud considered superficial, including fear of social disapproval, an insufficient motive for change.

Some might have no real desire to become heterosexual, seeking treatment only to convince themselves that they had done everything possible to change, leaving them free to return to homosexuality after the failure they expected.

Freud therefore told the parents only that he was prepared to study their daughter to determine what effects therapy might have.

He eventually broke off the treatment entirely because of what he saw as her hostility to men.