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This study explores representations of homosexuality in the psychiatric and sexology literature between the 1960s and the 1980s in Hungary with special attention to women. The literature is indicative of how psy sciences interacted with the system of norms on gender and sexual orientation embedded within the social and political context of the era. Examination of these sources shows a predominantly pathologizing-normative discursive framework deployed by experts. The fundamental therapeutic aim was to achieve good social adaptation. In this process, psy experts were influential representatives of the heteronormative society, reinforcing gender norms and state-socialist family ideals. Within the psychological discourses on homosexuality, the case of women had some special characteristics. Their sexual choices were represented as more alterable than men's and linked to emotional factors in the first place. In women's case, there was usually no "need" for therapeutic conversion because socially prescribed gender norms worked strongly enough and the lack of sexual pleasure with men was not considered a significant problem. Professional and popular psychiatric and sexology literature on homosexuality indicate that whereas for men, transgressing normative (hetero)sexuality was the stronger taboo, for women, it was the unfulfilled order of marriage and motherhood that was considered the most serious deviance, and lesbian relationships had to be prevented for this reason. The psychiatric literature on female homosexuality in state socialist Hungary demonstrates a predominantly pathologizing-normative approach. Attempts of conversion were less typical for women because socially prescribed gender norms worked strongly enough. The study suggests that—in accordance and interacting with socialist gender norms—it was less lesbian women's sexual behavior but the possible transgression of their family roles that was considered a major "deviance." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconstructs Alice Bálint's personal and professional development, dilemmas and attachments, relying on her recently revealed diaries kept between 1917 and 1929. They are an especially interesting document in many respects, touching upon politics, love, womanhood and profession. The year 1923 consists of her entries during her analysis with Ferenczi, dissecting the tensions in her most significant 'object relations' – her analyst, her husband and her mother. These notes demonstrate how her conflicts with sexuality, motherhood and profession relate to her attitude to the analysis and Ferenczi himself. The more general 'yield' of the diaries is to provide a valuable insight into the social and political circumstances of early twentieth-century Hungary and its opportunities and limitations for a (middle-class, Jewish) woman with diverse talents and intellectual ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the personal narratives of middle-aged and elderly Hungarian lesbian women based on oral history interviews. The stories open a window into the Kádár era from a special perspective, allowing us to get a glimpse into the women's self-recognition and coming out process; their different (sexual, professional or maternal) identities, relationships, informal social scenes, and communities; their thinking about gender roles, as well as the available representations of lesbians over the decades. The women also discuss the freedom and greater visibility-as complex as it was-that came after the democratic transition. The article contributes more detailed knowledge about the situation of LGBT people in the region during the state socialist period and around the 1989 regime change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue maps out real and symbolic spaces of women who are attracted to women in Eastern Europe, and highlights some of the challenges they face. One of the main themes emerging from the articles is that constructing spaces for women outside the heterosexual mainstream can be a useful political strategy in societies where non-conventional sexual interests, attractions, and gender expression have discriminative consequences. All of the eight articles in this special issue represent different voices, while demonstrating that there are many similar tendencies concerning the main goals and difficulties of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and lesbian movements of the region, in terms of legal and social developments related to the most heated issues of same-sex marriage and parenting on the one hand, and the violent attacks against pride marches and political backlash on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that nongovernment organization Labrisz Lesbian Association has established the Lesbian Herstory Archives Hungary in 2016 comprising of audio-visual and written materials on lesbians in Hungary from 1999 to 2016. Labrisz has reportedly been gathering materials for the archive while several members have developed films on the lesbian community in Budapest. Also explored are the dissolution of the Budapest Lesbian Film Committee.