The Devil's Advocate

Oh, you just know I'm going to respond to a post like this. :) First of all, let me say (what you already know) that I share your concern about the nonconsensual use of any type of therapy. In today's world, therapy that people are pressured into is a major problem in our society, which ought to receive the highest attention of the mental health community and of society in general. But let me ask you this: Suppose that you were a man who was sexually oriented toward violently raping and killing women. This was your only sexuality, and you'd struggled for years to change your feelings so that you could have a loving relationship with a woman. Under such circumstances, would you feel that the use of conversion therapy is always ethically unacceptable? Every article I've read that objects to conversion therapy *only* makes mention of that therapy in situations where the author will expect that his readers agree with him that the sexual orientation in question is in some manner nonharmful. I've yet to see an author who objects to conversion therapy take the really hard case and ask himself whether, if he had sexual feelings that he found thoroughly dangerous and distressing, he would object to being given conversion therapy. The problem, as I see it, is not with the use of conversion therapy (though I admit to a bias toward reparative therapy instead of aversion therapy). The problem is with people entering into this therapy because they are forced, pressured, or not given a balanced account of what they are risking. Leaving aside science (which I agree has not reached any firm conclusions, any more than it has reached any firm conclusions about the effects of man-boy sex on boys), it's clear from anecdotal evidence that some people benefit from conversion therapy and some people don't. The problem at the moment (at least in terms of homosexuality) is that same-gender-attracted people who aren't good candidates for conversion therapy are being pushed into it, and (you neglected to mention this fact in your post) same-gender-attracted people who want it and are well-educated as to the facts are finding it increasingly hard to get such therapy, because "most major health and mental health organizations" (these are the same ones who think all pedophiles are sick, and you trust them?) are making a strong effort to stop conversion therapy from ever being used with same-gender-attracted people. If you'd read the ex-gay newsletters (I really wish you would), you'd hear horror stories about people struggling to find the therapy they want that match the horror stories you've been reading about people struggling to get out of the therapy they don't want. The problem on both sides is that politics is being used as a weapon to determine mental health policies. The pro-gay lobbyists used politics to force the mental health community to reject conversion therapy for same-gender-attracted people; the anti-homosexuality lobbyists are using politics to try to force the mental health community to bring it back. On both sides, there is remarkably little discussion of scientific issues taking place, as opposed to political issues. Below, to balance your link, an article about the latest research of one of the psychiatrists who pushed for the removal of homosexuality from the APA's diagnostic manual (one of the pro-gay lobby's most beloved figures, till he came out with this study). Heather (who feels compelled to point out that the goal of such therapy is never to *eliminate* sexual feelings but to change them) Heather [E-mail]   [Home Page] 'Some Gays Change,' Prominent Psychiatrist Says