Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Fruitless

http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/
Category: Bioethics • Psychiatry • Social Issues
In 2007, the American Psychological Association commissioned their Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. The background is this: early in the history of mental health treatment efforts, homosexuality was considered to be an illness. Therefore, it was thought to be appropriate for therapists to try to change the sexual orientation of persons who are homosexual.

This attitude never was universal; it is said that even Sigmund Freud was skeptical of it. Even so, it was not until 1962 that efforts began to remove homosexuality from the DSM. It was decided, in 1973, to remove the diagnosis from the subsequent edition. The American Psychiatric Association issued a statement at that time, in support of civil rights protection for homosexual persons. The American Psychological Association followed suit in 1974. In 1991, the American Psychoanalytic Association finally saw the light. In 1992, homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases.

Even so, a small number of licensed mental health practitioners continued their efforts to pathologize and "treat" homosexuality.

The American Psychological Association's Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation set out to research this matter and issue a definitive proclamation. This is described:

Sexual "Conversion"? American Psychological Association Says Not Through Psychotherapy
October 10, 2009
Psychiatric Times. Vol. 26 No. 10
Natalie Timoshin


Read on »