Conversion Therapy

On the date of February 18, 1949, Gary Leon Ridgway was brought into this world by parents Mary Ridgway and Tom Ridgway in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. He was raised in Seattle, Washington along with his two brothers, one older and one younger. Growing up Gary had a very troubled childhood, his mother being a prominent figure in this regard. Mary was well-known in their household for being very domineering, frequently humiliating Gary in front of his brothers for his recurrent bed-wetting that continued on until he was thirteen years of age. Her cruelty doesn’t end with his constant humiliation, she would also talk to him at length about a multitude of sexual topics ranging from describing herself as dressing in a sexually suggestive way to telling him about

An individual’s sexuality should not define who they are as a person. What is Conversion Therapy? Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy has a range of treatments that are designed in hopes to turn a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual. Conversion therapy is also used in attempts to convert a transgender person’s gender expression to match with the gender given at birth. It is currently banned for minors in 5 states (California, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, and Illinois) and the other 45 states have no law against it. Many teens in this current time period are coming out as either lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer. Homosexuality is often seen as a negative effect towards society.

Prior to the twenty-first century, homosexuality was viewed as a mental disorder that required treatment. Both counseling and aversion therapy were exercised in attempts to “cure” individuals of their sexuality. The brutal process consisted of shock therapies, lobotomies, castrations, and drugs (Scot, 2013). A device that was commonly used was the Farrall Instrument, which functioned by showing an individual of the same sex and delivering a shock until a button was pressed to deliver another slide. The slides of the opposite sex did not deliver a shock; therefore, an association with those of the same sex would become negative and the patient receiving the treatment would become heterosexual. These practices were enacted until 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder (Scot, 2013). From that point on, homosexuality increasingly grew in acceptance and still continues to do so in modern society. A variety of places that celebrate members of the LGBT community have been established to help welcome them into society, along with an improvement of the attitudes of others and their treatments towards the communities’ members. However, homophobia and the segregation of LGBT individuals still persists in modern society to prevent their integration into civilization.

Pascoe discusses how masculinity can function as a regulatory mechanism of gender in American adolescent boys. It has been found that the word ‘fag’ is not necessarily directed at a homosexual boy, but has taken on a new meaning in school age boys. It is being used as a disciplinary mechanism to police certain behaviors “out of fear of having the fag identity permanently” (Pascoe p.330). This kind of teasing and harassment can temporarily be place on any boy who shows signs of weakness or femininity. The high schoolers in the study told Pascoe that calling someone a fag was like telling them they were nothing or stupid (Pascoe p. 335). Boys could be called a fag for anything that he did that was opposite of masculine, even when it had nothing to do with his sexual preference. The fag discourse seemed to be just another way for the contest of masculinity to take

The purpose of this paper is to explore various considerations when counseling members of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community (LGBT). When counseling LGBT members, the psychology professional must be aware of various factors that may influence effective treatment. For instance, the historical treatment of the LGBT community by the mental health profession is important to understand in order to make strides at improving institutional attitudes and approaches. Other factors such as community perceptions, interfamily relations and cultural bias are all relevant to successful therapeutic outcomes. This paper aims to discuss these factors in order to present a comprehensive review of the cultural considerations involved with counseling the LGBT community.

Conversion therapy, also known as reparative therapy, or Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) has a troubled history within the United States and abroad. Conversion therapy is the use of a variety of means to attempt to change an individual’s sexual or gender orientation. Current practices include inducing vomiting or paralysis while showing a subject homoerotic images, having a subject snap a rubber band on their wrist whenever they have certain thoughts, or using tactics to create shame or aversion to same sex or transgender thoughts. Many established institutes claim that the therapy does or doesn't work and offer contradicting evidence for their position. The Movement Advancement Project, a group dedicated to providing research for the advancement of LGBT people, states in an infographic that nine states, plus the District of Columbia and a handful of municipalities have banned conversion therapy from being provided by licensed medical professionals to minors (“Kids” 1). Based on the established evidence and the overwhelming number of psychologists and sociologist that disavow conversion therapy, along with the multitude of horror stories from children who were persuaded, or forced, to participate by their parents, the federal government should ban conversion therapy for all minors.

Electroconvulsive shock therapy, copper heating wires and mind altering drugs seem like something straight out of a terrifying horror film, but these are all painful realities for some victims of conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is also known as reparative therapy, and is the widespread practice of trying to change the sexuality of gay men and women all over the world. It is an inhumane process that only hurts patients. Gay conversion therapy is a horrifying term used to rationalize physical torture, psychological damage and systematic oppression towards the LGBT community that needs to be banned.

My preferred theoretical orientation is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The main assumption of CBT is that events and situations in life do not cause emotional problems (e.g., guilt or depression); rather problems are due to irrational beliefs and perceptions about the situations (Corey, 2009). The goals of CBT focus on correcting the client’s automatic and self-defeating thoughts, which should ultimately help them to develop a more adaptive philosophy of life (Corey, 2009). I like that this approach focuses on challenging and changing the client’s cognitive distortions, core beliefs, automatic thoughts, and schemas. Another positive aspect is that this approach focuses on the cognitive triad,

Scholinski’s story begins with the rationale of why she was placed in a mental institution at fifteen-years of age. She states, “the doctors came up with the idea that I was an inappropriate female” (Scholinski, 1997, pg.6). This diagnosis was based upon several factors: her lack of interest in make-up, her tom-boyish dressing style, her interest in rough/contact sports, and her lack of sexual engagement with the male gender. Considering these factors, Scholinski was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and placed first in the Michael Reese Hospital (Chicago) where she was familiarized with psychotics (i.e. Dalmane to sleep and Thorazine injections to retrain her). Next, she was transferred to Forest Hospital (Illinois) where her treatment focused on wearing more make-up, behaving more feminine, and spending more time with male patients. Lastly, her

The study that provides evidence that conversion therapy is both ineffective and harmful is provided by the American Psychological Association (APA) in a report entitled, Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. The report concluded that, "efforts to change sexual

Thesis: Conversion therapy receives little support from the American psychiatric community due to a lack of evidence confirming its supposed effectivity and the measurable damage it causes to the individuals subjected to its outdated practices.

Discussion of issues related to non-normative sexual and gender identities as related to mental health began in the 19th century (Drescher, 2010). Initially medical and psychiatric providers viewed issues related to gender identity as resulting from delusional thought processes (Drescher, 2010). As a result the concept of surgery as a solution to gender identity differences was viewed as unnecessary and ultimately an incorrect form of treatment (Drescher, 2010). In 1952 the first gender reassignment surgery was performed in Denmark on an American citizen (Drescher, 2010). The publicity in the American media that followed this surgery brought the concept of gender identity to the public eye. During the 1960s research about gender identity started to develop and it was the work of Money, Stoller, Benjamin, and Green that ultimately change professional and public concept of Gender Identity (Drescher, 2010). These four individuals were among the first to conduct clinical and academic research on gender identity and gender roles (Drescher, 2010). As a result of their research beliefs about non-normative gender identity shifted from a problem of the mind to a biological disorder that was fixed and should be treated with

Conversion disorder is a condition in which a patient shows symptoms of brain or nervous system problems, such as a stroke or seizure. However, no such problems can be found to explain the symptoms. This condition is also known as functional neurological symptom disorder. For people with conversion disorder, the symptoms may result in:

al., 2013, p. 253). With treatments such as “professional therapy and paraprofessional/religious ministry contexts”, Sanders and his colleagues report that thirty percent of those who participated in this form of therapy achieved “positive outcomes” (2013, p. 255). Although critics to changing one’s sexual orientation claim that there are many factors that limit the support of the research proving the success of this treatment option, Sanders states that there is data supporting successful conversions (2013, p. 255).

Choice "A" is the best answer. Conversion disorder, also known as functional neurological symptom disorder, consists of symptoms of altered motor or sensory function that do not correspond to a recognized neurologic pattern or syndrome, with an onset related to a major psychological stressor. In this case, the symptoms of right foot and left hand weakness do not correspond to a myotome, and the patient exhibits contradictory examination findings (e.g. diminished foot dorsiflexion on the exam table, but absence of foot drop on ambulation). She recently had a major psychologic stress in being diagnosed with Crohn disease. Conversion disorder occurs much more commonly in women than in men.