Comments on: Reorientation, Old School Style

By: PiaSharn

PiaSharn — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 18:59:11 +0000

This form of aversion therapy reminds me a lot of what was done to the character of Alex in A Clockwork Orange…

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:15:40 +0000

I feel sick myself after reading this. I think people who say that the gay community has never suffered should be made to read this.

By: Jim Burroway

Jim Burroway — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:03:25 +0000

Last summer I learned that a good friend of mine endured similar “therapy” in the late 1980′s. Yes, like Benton said, it’s hard to believe how inhuman we humans can be.

I think an important thing to keep in mind is this: These clients were so driven by a deeply homophobic society whose messages they internalized that they mostly volunteered to be treated this way. I have no doubt that if these treatments were still available, there would still be people signing up, either out of religious pressure or other pressures derived from internalization of negative judgments from society.

Any ethical discussion of conversion therapy MUST address this particular problem at length. It is a HUGE factor in driving people to therapies which reinforce their self-hatred, which may produce more injury, and which have an extremely low chance for success — unless you were to consider a lifetime of celibacy success.

By: Benton

Benton — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:45:49 +0000

I shouldn’t be, but I am continually surprised how inhuman we humans can be.

By: Lynn David

Lynn David — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:00:17 +0000

I don’t know if it’s my cousin’s meatloaf or reading this but I’ve gotta run….

By: howller

howller — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:06:17 +0000

There were, of course, worse treatments, as we know, in the form of lobotomies. But it may be that the vomit therapy left more emotional scars.

By: Emily K

Emily K — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:07:13 +0000

That’s terrible. I’m sorry I read that. I’m truly truly sorry that people endured that.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:21:19 +0000

Mike,

Most don’t talk about the treatment but instead want to blather about how the change in classification was “political”. We’ve all heard it, sometimes from the NARTHies and sometimes from others.

But when they romaticize those good ol’ days, we should remember that the “treatment” in those good ol’ days was at times horrific.

By: Mike Airhart

Mike Airhart — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:09:30 +0000

Hmmm, which ex-gays and reparative therapists would you say promote nostalgia for the days when “illness” was “treated” through patient abuse?

Jeffrey Satinover, perhaps?

Anyone else?