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from Ethical Issues
Psychiatric Association Issues Expanded Position Statement on Reparative Therapy
The A.P.A. Trustees has endorsed an expanded position statement
on sexual-reorientation therapy which reiterates the
association's view that homosexuality is not a mental disorder. Any effort
to view it as such, the A.P.A. says, stems not from
scientific evidence, but from a political and moral
effort to discredit the growing acceptance of homosexuality in society. This latest
statement strengthens and expands the A.P.A.'s 1998 statement against
reorientation therapy.
The new statement claims that "there are no scientifically
rigorous outcome studies to determine either the actual efficacy or the
harm of 'reparative' treatments." What literature does exist ,
they say, takes the form of "anecdotal reports of individuals who
have claimed to change, people who claim that attempts to change
were harmful to them, and others who claimed to have changed and
then later recanted those claims."
The APA warns therapists not to influence the course of
therapy even subtley toward the choice of sexual-reorientation therapy.
"Ethical practitioners," the statement says, "refrain from
attempts to change individuals' sexual orientation." After 40 years of
studies on sexual reorientation, the A.P.A. claims, there is no
evidence of efficacy.
NARTH's president Joseph Nicolosi strongly disagreed. "A
scientific debate won't be settled through arm's length discussion,"
he said. "Let's open up the debate and look at the evidence
scientifically. There is indeed a body of evidence in the literature
supporting the reality of change, and NARTH's ongoing research
continues to build on that prior evidence."
"Instead of studying reorientation therapy by listening to
both sides, the APA cancelled a debate at its Chicago meeting
which would have looked at the ethicality and effectiveness of
treatment," he added. "We're challenging the APA to dialogue with
us and to listen to people who have made the shift. Instead,
they're simply shutting out their voices."
Calling reparative therapy the "laetrile of the mental-health
professions," prominent gay psychiatrist Jack Drescher, M.D.,
said reparative therapy should be treated like that now-debunked
cancer treatment. Dr. Drescher was one of the psychiatrists who
crafted the latest A.P.A. statement.
Dr. Nicolosi said the new A.P.A. statement is evidence that
gay activists have positioned themselves as spokesmen for the
psychiatric profession. "Naturally," he said, "this issue is of great
political and personal importance to gay activists. But science
can't be led by the interests of any one group on
any divisive issue. Nor can it allow that group to shut down the scientific
discussion."
Updated: 8 February 2008
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