Psychoanalyst sheds light on nature of human bisexuality

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl spoke as part of the Penn Humanities Forum's "Human Nature" series. Comedian Woody Allen once described bisexuality as the condition that doubles your chances of getting a date on Saturday night. But at least one researcher is suggesting that both Allen's idea of bisexuality and that of modern society are riddled with "terrible simplifications." Acclaimed psychoanalyst and author Elisabeth Young-Bruehl spoke to several hundred students, faculty members and area residents in College Hall on Thursday in a talk entitled "Are Human Beings By Nature Bisexual?" Her lecture was a part of the Penn Humanities Forum's spring lecture series, "Human Nature," that brings together experts from various disciplines to discuss what it means to be human. Throughout the hour-long talk, Young-Bruehl argued that human sexuality is a far more complex topic than most people -- including many scientists -- understand. Specifically, Young-Bruehl asserted that the categories that have been created to distinguish between people with different sexual preferences "do not do any of us justice." Young-Bruehl took the audience on a tour of 19th century research into bisexuality, often lamenting those studies in which "the complexity and variability of human sexuality were grasped and then promptly denied." "Bisexuality has been the category shifter, the category that never quite fit with any of the general categorical schemes for thinking about sexuality," she said. The psychoanalyst referred specifically to a study conducted by zoologist Alfred Kinsey, which found that many people fall somewhere in between the categories of "heterosexual" and "homosexual." As a result of Kinsey's and other researchers' work, Young-Bruehl said, "the categories in which human sexuality has been scientifically circumscribed are breaking up." Some audience members said they were encouraged by the direction of Young-Bruehl's research. Karen Snelbecker, a membership coordinator for the Philadelphia area bisexual support group Biunity, said she was pleased by Young-Bruehl's efforts to shed light on the nature of bisexuality. "People try to deny bisexuality, or say we are too mysterious to be understood. It's important to discuss bisexuality in an academic context," Snelbecker said. Indeed, Young-Bruehl maintained that she is optimistic that a greater understanding of human sexuality will lead to an increase in society's tolerance of sexual differences. "I hope to show that we human beings are at a fascinating historical juncture in which we are struggling to appreciate the complexity and variability of our human sexuality -- and to overcome another kind of prejudice -- [the] fear of sexuality."