In the Shadow of the Epidemic

by Odets, Walt; Barale, Michele Aina; Goldberg, Jonathan; Moon, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780822316381
• ISBN10: 0822316382
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-09-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

For gay men who are HIV-negative in a community devastated by AIDS, survival may be a matter of grief, guilt, anxiety, and isolation.In the Shadow of the Epidemicis a passionate and intimate look at the emotional and psychological impact of AIDS on the lives of the survivors of the epidemic, those who must face on a regular basis the death of friends and, in some cases, the decimation of their communities. Drawing upon his own experience as a clinical psychologist and a decade-long involvement with AIDS/HIV issues, Walt Odets explores the largely unrecognized matters of denial, depression, and identity that mark the experience of uninfected gay men. Odets calls attention to the dire need to address issues that are affecting HIV-negative individuals-from concerns about sexuality and relations with those who are HIV-positive to universal questions about the nature and meaning of survival in the midst of disease. He argues that such action, while explicitly not directing attention away from the needs of those with AIDS, is essential to the human and biological well-being of gay communities. In the immensely powerful firsthand words of gay men living in a semiprivate holocaust, the need for a broader, compassionate approach toallof the AIDS epidemicrs"s victims becomes clear.In the Shadow of the Epidemicis a pathbreaking first step toward meeting that need.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction	p. 1
A Word about the Writer and the Reader	p. 11
Why We Need a Book about Being HIV-Negative	p. 13
The Psychological Epidemic	p. 23
Survivor Guilt and Related Family Matters	p. 40
Life in the Shadow: Loss and Mourning	p. 63
Being Outsiders: The "HIV-Negative" Identity	p. 99
Being Alone	p. 123
Being Together: The Relations of Positives and Negatives	p. 145
Being Sexual: The Politics and Humanity of Gay Sex in the Epidemic	p. 178
Being Here: Other Kinds of Survival	p. 233
Epilogue	p. 265
Notes	p. 281
Index	p. 301
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