Document 1850
 DOCN  M94A1850
 TI    The reliability of accounts of the HIV male who claims to maintain a
       heterosexual relationship.
 DT    9412
 AU    Pucheu D; Verissimo J; Sion F; Morais de Sa CA; Gaffree and Guinle
       University Hospital, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):437 (abstract no. PD0357). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94370725
 AB    OBJECTIVE: Investigating and evaluating, through psychological
       interviews, the accounts of HIV-positive males who claim to have been
       contaminated through strictly heterosexual relationships. METHOD: 18
       low-income. HIV positive men, within the age bracket 25 to 55, were
       interviewed at least five times, while undergoing treatment at the
       Immunology Division of Clinica Medica B at Hospital Universitario Gafree
       e Guinle. The semi-structured interviews aimed at investigating the
       sexual lives of the subjects, during the last 7 years and followed the
       conceptual framework of psychoanalysis. RESULTS: 100% of the men in the
       first interview declared to have contracted HIV through sexual
       relationships with prostitutes. As the bonding with the therapist became
       stronger, 5 men (27%) revealed they usually had sex with transvestites,
       2 (11.1%) affirmed they prostituted themselves for other men and 3
       (16.6%) of them exposed some sort of homosexual desires and experiences.
       8 men (44%) reached the end of the interviews affirming to have led a
       strictly heterosexual sex life. 100% of the men who admitted having had
       any type of homesexual experience claimed to play an active part in such
       experiences. From the 18 subjects, 10 were married and 8 were single.
       From the 8 men who related having had sexual relationships with
       transvestites, 50% were married. CONCLUSION: The dread of disclosing a
       homosexual behavior regardless of its frequency constructed a denial
       mechanism in the subjects. With denial, subjects made use of a
       stereotyped criteria to talk about their homosexuality, making a point
       of eliciting their role of the active partner. Moreover, it was through
       denial that the subjects disclosed their views of what it is to be male
       and female in the world, as they reinforced the sexual stereotype and
       tried to fit the male role. It was fundamental to elicit that since the
       male homosexual relationships are a source of humiliation, they are
       denied by males. The patient-therapist bond played a decisive role in
       the establishment of more reliable accounts, regarding HIV
       contamination, through sexual practices. Thus, it was through the strong
       patient-therapist bond that we accessed the more subjective and
       unconscious aspects of these men's experiences.
 DE    Adult  Bisexuality  Female  Homosexuality  Human  HIV
       Infections/*TRANSMISSION  Male  Middle Age  Prostitution  *Sex Behavior
       Truth Disclosure  MEETING ABSTRACT

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