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Illustrated portrait of Dr. O’Reilly

A character in A Boy's Own Story

Dr. O’Reilly

A psychoanalyst who treats homosexuality as a family-caused condition that might be cured.

What they want in White’s narrator’s account

To fit the narrator’s experience into the psychological theories available to him.

The book

Cover of A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White
A Boy's Own StoryEdmund White, 1982

A boy learns shame early and tries every available way to turn himself into someone else.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Dr. O’Reilly represents mid-century medical authority. His theories encourage the narrator to understand sexuality as pathology and to submit to the hope of conversion.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • ReservedA neutral consulting-room manner conveys professional authority.
  • DiagnosticHe translates the narrator’s life into causal theory.
  • Period-boundHis assumptions reflect a medical culture that pathologized homosexuality.
  • UnsuccessfulTherapy cannot change the narrator’s orientation.

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