OCR Text |
Show OCTOBER when he gets the homosexual to think of his partner while inducing vomiting? Does Dr. Lee have a comparable therapy technique for troubled heterosexual couples? '' One of the members of this group wrote me recently, 1 have no indication or hopes of feelings for therapy as well as the oedipal homosexual? Is homosexuality really being cured or are theories being expounded, and at the expense of the patient? Very few psychiatrists claim any more that they can cure the strident claims of the few who insist destroyed my ability to accept and experience the feelings that I still have for a man." Dr. Lee calls thi man "improved." cannot overemphasize that "escaping into health" is one of the most difficult problems the homosexual has to wrestle with. It is the basis for most "false cures" and yet is given very little consideration by even the best of therapists. This "escape into health" turns out to be exactly as escape and, in every case I have I In most observed, temporary. but come cases, it is short-livecases may take several years of close observation to be accurately assessed. These are often the men who marry and begin raising a family and come to realize they are still homosexual. I have observed married homosexual men from the small intermountain communities who visit the.big cities where they think they are unknown. Their activities under these anonymous d, circumstances accurately show what their true sexual situation is. For the most part no one is the wiser, and these men live outlives of apparent healthy heterosexual adjustment These cure" specialists each have their $1 particular theory of homosexuality and how best remedy the "illness." Dr. Hadden feels that homosexuality is cause by poor relationships with other males. He gathers his patients into groups and through corrective interaction, cures about 50 Drs. Feldman and McCulloch regard it as a conditioned response. They shock their patients and cure about 50 Dr. Socarides attributes it to unresolved oedipal trauma and through deep analysis, cures about 50 Dr. Ovesey feels it is caused by overly competitive male siblings, and besides, it isn't really homosexuality but "pseudohomosexuality." He cures about 50 by helping them to become adequate competitors and showing them they weren't really homosexual to begin with. Dr. Hatterer cures about 50 by making them feel very guilty for any homosexual to behavior and encouraging heterosexual activity. It goes on and on, from EST to T.A., from hypnosis to Primal Scream. The homosexual who is looking for the cure has a veritable supermarket of cure therapies to choose from. Whey is it that a homosexual, on cure are looked upon more and more with disbelief by their colleagues. As a profession, psychotherapists are, by their own admission, powerless to affect the cure as evidenced by Dr. Joel Fort's in vestigation. (Psych ological homosexual. AMERICAN CULTURE ANIT-HOMOSEXU- offer to bring him such a person so he could accurately document and verify the curing of the homosexual. Though there were many promises and commitments, only one person ever ventured forth- to be interviewed A- - very cursory preliminary interview revealed this man to still be homosexual. One noted therapist who claimed a 50 cure rate and had published a book on it finally confessed that he had only one patient that he felt could pass the test but he was on such bad terms with this patient that he didn't dare contact him. Since Kinsey's death, Dr. Pomeroy has carried on his research, and his offer remains to this day with a remarkable 100 unchallenged record. well-publiciz- ed Our American culture is more antihomosexual than almost any other society. It is not surprising then to discover that the answer as to whether or not homosexuality is wrong is a foregone conclusion. For many people, any discussion about homosexuality does not get beyond this question and the predictable answer as indicated so clearly in the recent editorial of the student newspaper. The Universe, May 19, 77) I am not advocating that homosexuality is right but to say that it is wrong holds weight only when the many more for the homosexual- pressing-a- nd - Reports 29: Oct. 71) It is for this reason, as well as for other very sound reasons, that they have teken homosexuality off their list of mental disturbances. You choose to see in this historic action signs of social depravity. Any honest psychologist hearing your crass, easy moralizing would exclaim, "Spoken like a true charlatan!" In removing homosexuality from their list of mental disorders, they are saying that the homosexual personality, as is bom out in various tests and studies, along with their own clinical and field doesn't differ But therapists blithely continue to significantly from the heterosexual personality. They are trying to clear away the accretion of prejudices so they can see more publish their dubious cures, apparently unaware they are making tools of themselves and their profession. The failure of clearly a configuration of which personality expression needs to be understood, not simple labeled as sick. psychotherapy observations, - person who had at one time been homosexual and then had become heterosexual. Needless to say, this caught his interest and he made a homosexual. The increasing females, and have nearly you doubt this, the challenge is openly extended to subnit your cures to The Institute of Sexual Research at the University of Indiana.- They are waiting to take the sexual history of the first cured ' As an authority on homosexuality, you should be aware of Dr. Kinsey's discovery that in all of the thousands of sexual histories he gathered, he did not find one' necessary questions and problems are addressed accurately and completely. These things were totally ignored in your lecture. You, like many others, prefer to preoccupy yourself with the "wrongness" of homosexuality. Of what value is it to scream and shout that homosexuality is wrong if that is all you can say about it? Mease set that question aside long enough to ask the more pertinent questions. One of the most to cure the homosexual has new come to be recognized as a very substantial indictment against the profession. More and more of the very top experts in thei field who insist on absolute factual evidence concur that there are no known cases where homosexuality has been cured. The implications are profound, especially for the Church. The very founding of its position is that it can and must be cured. It is not being cured albeit shock treatments, repentance, abstention, marriage,' excommu- . . GOAL OF QUALIFIED THERAPISTS CHANGING The goal of most therapists now is to help the homosexual to adjust to his situation and build a constructive, integrated life. This type of therapy has a remarkable sucoess rate, with long-terstable effects. The antagonist in this fight is not the homosexual component m in an otherwise "normal" personality but a society which reacts with a mixture of emotions arising largely from ignorance. "The relevant question is not what makes homosexuals or what to 'do' with them but rather what makes society persecute them." (Dr. R Seidenberg, "The Accursed Race", Homosexuality, ed. by Rulten-beck- ) The contrast between "cure" and "adjustment" therapy is striking in its affects and success. Men who have been fortunate enough to have received this kind of therapy almost invariably enlightened investigators of homosexuahty. Dr. Richard Green, clearly shows his profession that, to date, there are very few answers. He puts forth, in a brilliant challenge to his colleagues, a penetrating and perceptive list of questions that are, hr the most part totally ignored by most so called "authorities." You would do well to read his article in the International Journal o Psychiatry, March '72. Impose his questions on your lecture to see if it measure up to the standards of academic discipline in which you have been trained. Unlike your lecture this volume takes up all of the pros and cons of the homosexual question. The dialogue between Dr. Green and other specialists is tremendous and a most valuable lesson in the theory and practice of psychotherapy. special blessings, nication, innumerable confessions with the bishop, or a lifetime of prayers to God. The Brethren may protest this, claiming that they can go back and reinterview these men to verify their cures. But these men will be no more candid now than before. If ! fttXVMrj express gratitude for the publicly analyzed, choosing to read them in the Church out of context and detached from the cultural milieu in which they were written. The main Old Testament scripture they refer to is the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The very scholarly research of ' Derrick Bailey in Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition reveals that it was centries after its destruction before a homosexual interpretation was ever attributed to the sins of Sodom. Once applied, the interpretation has stuck, and Sodom to this day remains erroneously synonymous with homosexuality. The bulk of the few remaining Biblical referenced to homosexuality come from the writings of Paul in his epistles to the Romans, Corinthians and Timothy. Though some experts doubt that Paul is directly referring to homosexuality, it appears to me that there is little doubt that he is, and that he condemns the practice. But several other crucial facts must be squarely faced by all parties who give scriptural authority to the problem of homosexuality. The belief was current in the Mediterranian culture of Paul's in time that overindulgence heterosexual activities would make a man effeminate and turn him into a homosexual The notion held that the heterosexual profligate would simply wear out and become bored with "normal" sex and by dint of its unusualness, would turn to the taboos, one of which would be homosexuality. This explains Paul's condemnation of men who Turn from" the "natural use" of the woman to lust after each other. The homosexual who reads this scripture is bewildered, realizing that he never has "turned from" the woman. His "hatural" desire has always been for a man and sex with a women is for him "unnatural." He connects with Paul's condemnation of the homosexual activity of these men but is at a loss to see how their more confused about their sexuality, expecially if they have not yet had any kind of sexual experience but are keenly aware of the desire they have always had. The responsible application of Paul's statement to the Romans requires that one subscribe to the theory that too much heterosexual sex will turn a person into a homosexual. This general notion is still held as valid by the Jehovah's Witnesses. (Awake, March 15, 1977) In the most strict interpretation, Paul was CONTINUED condemning wanton NEXT ISSUE... l" sv ' - ' ' a Vi ? Mti. vfr JwA .V hetero-- ( sexuals who were turning for sheer novel pleasure to sexual activities outside of their "hatural" desires. The young man the bishop talks to has never traveled that road, has never known what it was to desire a woman. respond to shock $ Experience and logic in this matter forced upon the Brethren. They choose to remain oblivious to the tragic implications of their position and actions. They seem hopelessly hung up on a handful of ancient and obscure scriptures which they have never publicly analyzed, chooseing to cannot be coincide. The young men to whom this scripture has been read by their bishops come away only cured? The only stipulation is that he must want very much to change. Does it stand to reason that the homosexual with unresolved oedipal conflict will resolve it through shock therapy? Or will group therapy with other men be any more effective? Will the "conditioned" homosexual get reconditioned in deep analysis or should he try the Tm OK - Your "pseudo-homosexua- TOGAYDOM activities and his situation therapeutic experience. This can hardly be said of "cure" therapy. regardless of whatver caused him to be homosexual, can enter any one of these various programs and has about a 50 chance of being OK" route? Does the BIBLICAL REFERENCES ; .te? 1 s WSC iV1 - . Vi-X W , tof t. .v,.- , u ms tH |