The Velvet Rage - 2nd Edition by Alan Downs (Paperback)

Number of Pages: 272
Genre: Social Science
Sub-Genre: LGBT Studies
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
Age Range: Adult
Book theme: Gay Studies
Author: Alan Downs
Language: English

About the Book

The Velvet Rage is becoming a touchstone in gay culture just as Goodbye to Berlin was in the 30s, A Boy s Own Story in the 60s and Faggots in the 70s. --Observer (UK)"

Book Synopsis

A groundbreaking examination of the psychology of homosexuality, why it leads to shame over one's identity, and how to overcome it

In The Velvet Rage, psychologist Alan Downs draws on his own struggle with shame and anger, contemporary research, and stories from his patients to passionately describe the stages of a gay man's journey out of shame and offers practical and inspired strategies to stop the cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behavior. The Velvet Rage is an empowering book that has already changed the public discourse on gay culture and helped shape the identity of an entire generation of gay men.

Review Quotes

Artvoice, 11/26/15 The clearest, most succinct delineation of the origins and consequences of internalized homophobia, and how to address them.

Philadelphia Gay News bestseller, 5/11/12 A groundbreaking examination of the psychology of homosexuality, why it leads to shame over one's identity, and how to overcome it.... This book has remarkable staying power.

[An] excellent new book...The Velvet Rage is a chronicle of furtive pathos, anger, compensatory fabulousness, despair, sex addiction, and flickerings of hope as its wounded actors make their way by uncertain stages toward a light of authenticity and self-acceptance their culture does not want them to find or even see. In its pages, through anecdotal moments and analytical passages, one is constantly catching glints of people one has known, behaviors one has seen and heard firsthand and often been baffled and hurt by.--San Francisco Bay Guardian

Dr. Alan Downs has some words of wisdom....Although unnerving at first, readers might feel kinship with the case study subjects and ultimately, become empowered by the lessons learned and by the self-realizations experienced.
--New City Chicago

Peppered with deeply personal reflections... There's no doubt that the men profiled in this sober call for owning the injury of growing up gay in a straight world were helped by their counseling, or that there are certainly some readers who will find their own lives reflected in that healing.--Q Syndicate

Those familiar with gay men will find a good deal of honest reporting here. Without being maudlin, Downs, himself a gay man, writes movingly.--Library Journal

While we can all hope that the collective experience will change in time, Downs' perspective is still all too relevant.--AOL's Book Maven

About the Author

Alan Downs, PhD, is a clinical psychologist practicing in Beverly Hills, California. The former CEO of Michael's House Treatment Center, Downs now maintains a thriving private psychotherapy practice and an intensive outpatient addiction program.