This paper attempts to bring some central meaning to a concept that has had many meanings attached to it, ranging from vague feelings of discomfort to truly horrified fright accompanied by disordered thought and behavior. The new definition presented here is that acute homosexual panic is an acute schizophrenic reaction, usually temporary in duration, displaying the full panoply of schizophrenic symptoms accompanied by sensations of intense terror manifesting themselves in wild excitement or catatonic paralysis. It is based upon the patient''s fear of loss of control of unconscious wishes to offer himself as a homosexual object which he feels will result in the most dire consequences.