Is Treating Homosexuality Ethical and Effective?

YES: Shannon Hennigan, Kelly Calak, Jessica Dianni

NO: Michelle Toner, Amy Strimas

PRIMARY SOURCES

YES: Throckmorton, W. (1998). Efforts to modify sexual orientation: A review of outcome literature and ethical issues. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 20, 283-304.

NO: Schreier, B.A. (1998). Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax: The faulty and specious assumptions of sexual reorientation therapies. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 20, 305-314.

ISSUE SUMMARY

YES: Warren Throckmorton, director of college counseling and an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College, maintains that efforts to assist homosexually oriented individuals to modify their patterns of sexual arousal have been effective and can be conducted in an ethical manner.

NO: Barry A. Schreier, coordinator of training and a psychologist at the Counseling and Psychological Services of Purdue University, counters that homosexuality is not an illness, so there is no need to treat it.

Perhaps no issue in psychology has provoked more intense debate in the surrounding popular culture than that of homosexuality. For nearly 30 years, the governing associations of psychology, psychiatry, and counseling have worked to remove the pathological label from the lifestyles of gay and lesbian individuals. Many professionals assume that empirical research has demonstrated the biological underpinnings of sexual orientation, so many psychologists portray homosexuality as a normal alternative lifestyle and attempt to fight homophobia. Some, however, view these efforts as politically motivated and threatening to traditional religious beliefs. Others resonate with psychology’s support of homosexuality as an important protection of minority rights.

One facet of this culture war is the treatment of individuals who are dissatisfied with their sexual orientation. Reorientation, or conversion therapy, as it is sometimes called, was regularly practiced before the 1970s. However, many people currently feel that it is an unethical and unproven brand of treatment. They argue that gay individuals can internalize society’s pervasive homophobia and, thus, express the desire to leave the homosexual lifestyle. Others counter that no one should stand in the way of an individual’s desire and that psychotherapists have an obligation to honor this desire. Of course, honoring the desire to change sexual orientation presumes that such change is possible, which is another issue in dispute.

In his paper, Warren Throckmorton expresses discomfort with the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) recent resolution against conversion therapy. He reviews the effectiveness and appropriateness of therapeutic efforts to change sexual orientation and finds several successful efforts to modify patterns of sexual arousal from multiple perspectives. Although he contends that the concept of sexual orientation has limited clinical use because it is not well defined, Throckmorton discusses the ethical obligations of psychotherapists to allow clients the choice of conversion therapy.

In the second selection, Barry A. Schreier asks why some therapists continue to insist, in the face of disconfirming scientific research, that homosexuality is an illness that needs to be cured. Schreier defends the concept of sexual orientation and states that studies supporting conversion therapy have been heavily criticized for their methodological flaws. In response to Throckmorton’s ethical defense of conversion therapy, Schreier reviews the phenomenon of minority groups’ struggling to accept their identities and illuminates ways in which Throckmorton’s bias may underlie and skew his ethics.

POINT	COUNTERPOINT
· The issue of conversion therapy needs more examination before psychology’s governing bodies reject them out of hand.	· The American Psychological Association (APA) and the ACA have a long history of justified opposition to labeling homosexuality a pathology.
· The concept of sexual orientation is un clear and subjective, and it has not been tested in longitudinal research.	· Sexual orientation is a valid concept, descriptive of a natural and long-occurring characteristic.
· Efforts to assist homosexually oriented individuals who wish to modify their patterns of sexual arousal have been shown to be empirically effective.	· Research that seemingly demonstrates modified sexual orientation is methodologically flawed.
· Individuals who wish to modify their patterns of sexual arousal should be allowed the option of conversion therapy.	· Individuals who wish to modify their patterns of sexual arousal may have internalized society’s prejudices and need help feeling validated in a minority · identity.
· Religious freedom may be denied if the freedom to choose conversion therapy is not affirmed.	· If conversion therapy is ineffective or damaging, then no religious freedom is denied.