cover image Uncharted Lives: 2understanding the Life Passages of Gay Men

Uncharted Lives: 2understanding the Life Passages of Gay Men

Stanley Siegel. Dutton Books, $21.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-525-93813-2

This second collaboration between psychotherapist Siegel and Newsday columnist Lowe, following The Patient Who Cured His Therapist , is a lively, engagingly anecdotal account of the developmental stages of the modern gay man. A dearth of sanctioned rites of passage and role models provides the gay male with a potentially empowering opportunity, according to the authors. Rather than continuing to define himself according to traditional notions of masculinity, of family and of love, the gay man accommodates these notions to his needs and desires. The authors support their analysis through interviews with gay men of all ages as well as through Siegel's account of his own belated acceptance of his homosexuality. The authors' decision to emphasize success stories downplays the very real social and psychological obstacles gay men face; the tangible pride of men who have surmounted those obstacles, however, makes for affecting, even inspirational, reading. (June)