Chosen Best Book in Lesbian, Gay, and/or Bisexual Psychology for 2002 American Psychological Association (Div. 44)
Discover the damage done by conversion therapy!
Sexual Conversion Therapy
Ethical, Clinical and Research Perspectives
Edited by Ariel Shidlo, PhD
Psychologist, Columbia Center for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Mental Health, Columbia/Presbyterian Medical Center; and Private Practice, New York, New York
Michael Schroeder, PsyD
Psychologist in Private Practice, New York, New York
Jack Drescher, MD
Faculty Member and Supervisor, William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Institute; Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, State University of New York in Brooklyn
Hard Cover
ISBN: 789019108 $49.95
Soft Cover
ISBN: 789019116 $29.95
About The Book:
Hear the other side of the story on sexual conversion therapy!
In their fervor to "fix" homosexuals, practitioners of sexual conversion therapies have often overlooked or completely dismissed the possible psychological and social side effects of such treatments. Sexual Conversion Therapy: Ethical, Clinical, and Research Perspectives works to counterbalance the clinical and ethical omissions of overzealous therapists who have focused on efficacy and outcome at the expense of their patients'self-esteem. Sexual Conversion Therapy features first-person accounts of patients and clinicians, including psychotherapists who themselves have undergone treatments ranging from psychoanalysis to religious faith healing to aversion behavior conditioning and even electroshock therapy. In addition to examining the history and ethics of conversion therapy, the book presents empirical data on current practice and recovery processes for survivors of failed conversion attempts.
Sexual Conversion Therapy presents current perspectives on the harmful impact of sexual orientation interventions, including:
"Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey"
"Becoming Gay"
"A Psychologist's Journey Through the Ex-Gay Movement"
"Therapeutic Antidotes: Gay and Bisexual Men Recover from Conversion Therapies"
"I'm Your Handyman: A History of Reparative Therapies"
Nearly 30 years after the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a small but dedicated group of mental health practitioners continues to diagnose and treat homosexuality as a mental illness. Sexual Conversion Therapy is an essential alternative to the bulk of published material that champions treatments that produce a handful of heterosexuals "cured" of their "illness," while inflicting emotional and psychological damage on countless gay and lesbian patients who failed to convert.
Reviews:
"THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK. . . . AN INVALUABLE RESOURCES FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS AND POLICYMAKERS. This book gives voice to those men and women who have experienced painful, degrading, and unsuccessful conversion therapy and survived. The ethics and misuses of conversion therapy practice are well documented, as are the harmful effects."
Joyce Hunter, DSW, Research Scientist, HIV Center for Clinical & Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University, New York City
"VIVID . . . documents the harm that conversion therapy may produce in the lives of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. AN INVALUABLE RESOURCE for those professionals who wish to do no harm."
Marvin R. Goldfried, PhD, Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Contents:
What Needs Fixing? An Introduction
I'm Your Handyman: A History of Reparative Therapies
The View from Irving Bieber's Couch: "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose"
Excerpts from Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey
Becoming Gay: A Personal Odyssey
Healing Homosexuals: A Psychologist's Journey Through the Ex-Gay Movement and the Pseudo Science of Reparative Therapy Jeffry G. Ford, MA, LP
Cures versus Choices: Agendas in Sexual Reorientation Therapy
Therapeutic Antidotes: Helping Gay and Bisexual Men Recover from Conversion Therapies
Ethical Issues in Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapies: An Empirical Study of Consumers
Overview of Ethical and Research Issues in Sexual Orientation Therapy
Ethical Concerns Raised When Patients Seek to Change Same-Sex Attractions
Index
Date Published:
2002 Status: New. Available now.
(A monograph published simultaneously as the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4.)
