Dealing with homosexuality in a homophobic culture: a self-organization approach

The psychological basis of homophobia (Madureira, Integr Psych Behav, 2007, doi:10.1007/s12124-007-9024-9) analyzes the relationships between sexuality, gender, culture and power as they relate to the phenomena of homophobia. Two theoretical models, the Semiotic Regulatory System and the two processes of Heimweh and Fernweh, are employed to demonstrate the embodiment of homophobic prejudices internalized through affective meaning making processes. These models are integrated in a self-organizational approach to describe in more detail top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top processes, which embody homophobic prejudices with sexual orientations and a sense of identity. The same case proposed by Madureira is chosen to be reinterpreted, and clarify the new distinctions that could be part of strategies of intervention against homophobia.