In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS

Series Q

by Walt Odets

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 Epidemic is 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 to all of the AIDS epidemic’s victims becomes clear. In the Shadow of the Epidemic is a pathbreaking first step toward meeting that need.

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction, History, Gay

328 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Walt Odets is a clinical psychologist in private practice who has worked with and written about the psychological, developmental and social lives of gay men for more than three decades.

His seminal book, In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS, which Duke University Press published in 1995, was selected by The New York Times as one of the “Notable Books of the Year.” The Advocate magazine reported that In the Shadow of the Epidemic was also the No. 1 bestselling book among gay men that fall. The following year, OUT magazine named Odets "one of The 100 most impressive, influential and controversial gay men and lesbians of 1996.”

Odets’s recent work has focused on the psychological aftermath of the HIV epidemic, the long-standing childhood and adolescent stigmatization and trauma experienced by young gay men, and the conventional idea of “the homosexual” and its negative influences on gay identities, self-realization and relationships between men. This work has culminated in a new book, OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Reimagining Gay Men’s Lives, which examines the hopes and new possibilities for gay men today. The book will be released by both Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Penguin Random House (U.K.), in June 2019.

Walt Odets earned his B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University in 1969, and after two decades working as a photojournalist and pilot, a Ph.D. from San Francisco's Professional School of Psychology, in 1989. A public advocate, he has consulted for the Shanti Project of San Francisco and the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York City, and been a member of the AIDS Task Force of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA). He has also served as a clinical supervisor for the psychology intern program at Berkeley's Pacific Center, and as a member of the United States Congress, Office of Technology Assessment evaluation workshop on AIDS prevention.

A seasoned and engaging public speaker, Odets has presented to a broad range of groups, including The Gay Men's Health Summit, the California Department of Health Services, the American Psychological Association, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Gay and Lesbian Health Conference, the American Psychiatric Association, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the State of New York Department of Health, the Yale University Institution for Social and Policy Studies, the Stanford Medical School and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Walt Odets is the son of playwright Clifford Odets and stage actress Bette Grayson. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and New York, and presently lives in Berkeley, California, where he writes and maintains a private practice in psychotherapy.

Website: www.waltodets.com
Facebook: @waltodetsauthor

Reviews

[T Meikle · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

A fascinating look into the experiences of gay men during a time of despair and devastation. Never have I seen such nuanced, complex discussion of the time period. I feel I have such a richer insight into how these men felt and survived. An existential and philosophical book. A must read.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is a remarkable fact of life in the cerebral cortex that simply sharing an experience makes it meaningful. . . . The effort to share consciousness---of social events, literary ideas, or simultaneous orgasm---is a universal pursuit of the human cortex, if not always a successful one."