Cure for gayness

Those who grew up between and often commented on the negative influence of the British media:. Regina Kunzel’s new book explores the psychiatric treatment of queer and gender-variant people, often through patients’ own writing.

We examined each transcript systematically for data relating to these aspects and extracted text segments accordingly using the software package NVivo. GS undertook in depth, unstructured interviews with participants that were audiotaped and transcribed for qualitative analysis.

Objectives To investigate the circumstances since the s in which people who were attracted to members of the same sex received treatments to change their sexual orientation, the referral pathway and the process of therapy, and its aftermath. Religious objections to same sex attraction between men have existed since at least the Middle Ages 1 but were first endorsed in law in England in the Act of Henry VIII, which classified sodomy as an illegal act between man and woman, man and man, or man and beast.

My treatment of a young religious woman who requested help dating men despite being attracted to women provides an example of how therapy can help those struggling with their gender or sexual. This made 31 participants who were aged 27 to 83 years mean One was married, six had married and divorced, and the cure for gayness were single.

Participants 29 people who had received treatments to change their sexual orientation in the United Kingdom and two relatives of former patients. When Gayness was a Crime and a Mental Illness: One Man’s Journey from Involuntary Confinement to Pride This is the story of Gene Ampon, a gay California teen who was arrested in the s and sent to a psychiatric hospital to be “cured” of homosexuality — and the movement to pride and resilience that helped save him.

Official websites use. Those who confided in others were usually met with silence, condemnation, and rejection or told that their homosexual feelings constituted a temporary phase. There were no positive role models and the newspapers were full of the most vituperative filth that made me feel suicidal I felt totally bewildered that my entire emotional life was being written up in the papers as utter filth and perversity.

Twenty nine former male patients, two female patients, and two female relatives of male patients made contact, of whom one male and one female patient eventually declined because of personal commitments. Conclusion The definition of same sex attraction as an illness and the development of treatments to eradicate such attraction have had a negative long term impact on individuals.

One man had considered himself heterosexual until experiencing same sex attraction in his early 20s, four regarded themselves as bisexual, and the remainder had consistently been attracted to same sex partners. While many participants found happiness in same sex relationships after their treatment, most were left feeling emotionally distressed to some degree.

Treatments of homosexuality in : The history of treatment of homosexuality shows that psychiatry may need a cure of its own

They were recruited through articles in newspapers, gay magazines, and newsletters of gay groups; interviews with one of the authors GS on local and national radio and television discussing the project; and direct contacts with the research team.

Although some participants chose to undergo treatments instead of imprisonment or were encouraged through some form of medical coercion, most were responding to complex personal and social pressures that discouraged any expression of their sexuality. We conducted an oral history study of treatments to change same sex attraction in Britain from to understand why people received treatment, how they experienced it, and how it affected their lives.

The social construction of the diagnosis of homosexuality occurred within the context of powerful sociopolitical forces against any variation from the heterosexual norm that prevailed for much of the 20th century.

Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. All authors undertook a series of discussions about emerging themes to resolve discrepancies and reach a consensus on the meaning of the texts.

Results Most participants had been distressed by their attraction to their own sex and people in whom they confided thought they needed treatment. All participants gave written, informed consent. Many participants felt they lacked parental affection during childhood and adolescence and experiencing same sex attraction gave rise to considerable anxiety.

We analysed narratives following a chronological pattern from early development and sexual feelings to the treatment received, their lives thereafter, and their current attitudes to their treatment.