Psychological perspective on homosexuality
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Ah... This is my pet subject... Being both a psychologist and a homosexual, it's natural for me to return to my roots to see what Psychologists have to say about homosexuality.
But first, I might have to address a few issues:
Why Psychology?
Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour. And hence, the study of homosexuality has been undertaken very seriously in the field of Psychology.
Is Psychology a good enough scientific answer to homosexuality?
Even though the subject matter of homosexuality is err... Subjective... However, Psychologists are trained in the research methods to ensure that research "biases" are reduced to as low as possible. -
It's cool that American Psychological Association released public information related to homosexuality under one page:
http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html
What Is Sexual Orientation?
Sexual Orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual or affectional attraction to another person. It is easily distinguished from other components of sexuality including biological sex, gender identity (the psychological sense of being male or female) and the social gender role (adherence to cultural norms for feminine and masculine behavior).
Sexual orientation exists along a continuum that ranges from exclusive homosexuality to exclusive heterosexuality and includes various forms of bisexuality. Bisexual persons can experience sexual, emotional and affectional attraction to both their own sex and the opposite sex. Persons with a homosexual orientation are sometimes referred to as gay (both men and women) or as lesbian (women only).
Sexual orientation is different from sexual behavior because it refers to feelings and self-concept. Persons may or may not express their sexual orientation in their behaviors.
What Causes a Person To Have a Particular Sexual Orientation?
There are numerous theories about the origins of a person's sexual orientation; most scientists today agree that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors. In most people, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. There is also considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality. In summary, it is important to recognize that there are probably many reasons for a person's sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people.
Is Sexual Orientation a Choice?
No, human beings can not choose to be either gay or straight. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence without any prior sexual experience. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed. -
Can Therapy Change Sexual Orientation?
No. Even though most homosexuals live successful, happy lives, some homosexual or bisexual people may seek to change their sexual orientation through therapy, sometimes pressured by the influence of family members or religious groups to try and do so. The reality is that homosexuality is not an illness. It does not require treatment and is not changeable.
However, not all gay, lesbian, and bisexual people who seek assistance from a mental health professional want to change their sexual orientation. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people may seek psychological help with the coming out process or for strategies to deal with prejudice, but most go into therapy for the same reasons and life issues that bring straight people to mental health professionals.
What About So-Called "Conversion Therapies"?
Some therapists who undertake so-called conversion therapy report that they have been able to change their clients' sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Close scrutiny of these reports however show several factors that cast doubt on their claims. For example, many of the claims come from organizations with an ideological perspective which condemns homosexuality. Furthermore, their claims are poorly documented. For example, treatment outcome is not followed and reported overtime as would be the standard to test the validity of any mental health intervention.
The American Psychological Association is concerned about such therapies and their potential harm to patients. In 1997, the Association's Council of Representatives passed a resolution reaffirming psychology's opposition to homophobia in treatment and spelling out a client's right to unbiased treatment and self-determination. Any person who enters into therapy to deal with issues of sexual orientation has a right to expect that such therapy would take place in a professionally neutral environment absent of any social bias.
Is Homosexuality a Mental Illness or Emotional Problem?
No. Psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals agree that homosexuality is not an illness, mental disorder or an emotional problem. Over 35 years of objective, well-designed scientific research has shown that homosexuality, in and itself,is not associated with mental disorders or emotional or social problems. Homosexuality was once thought to be a mental illness because mental health professionals and society had biased information. In the past the studies of gay, lesbian and bisexual people involved only those in therapy, thus biasing the resulting conclusions. When researchers examined data about these people who were not in therapy, the idea that homosexuality was a mental illness was quickly found to be untrue.
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association confirmed the importance of the new, better designed research and removed homosexuality from the official manual that lists mental and emotional disorders. Two years later, the American Psychological Association passed a resolution supporting the removal. For more than 25 years, both associations have urged all mental health professionals to help dispel the stigma of mental illness that some people still associate with homosexual orientation. -
Can Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals Be Good Parents?
Yes. Studies comparing groups of children raised by homosexual and by heterosexual parents find no developmental differences between the two groups of children in four critical areas: their intelligence, psychological adjustment, social adjustment, and popularity with friends. It is also important to realize that a parent's sexual orientation does not dictate his or her children's.
Another myth about homosexuality is the mistaken belief that gay men have more of a tendency than heterosexual men to sexually molest children. There is no evidence to suggest that homosexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to molest children.
Why Do Some Gay Men, Lesbians and Bisexuals Tell People About Their Sexual Orientation?
Because sharing that aspect of themselves with others is important to their mental health. In fact, the process of identity development for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals called "coming out", has been found to be strongly related to psychological adjustment—the more positive the gay, lesbian, or bisexual identity, the better one's mental health and the higher one's self-esteem.
Why Is the "Coming Out" Process Difficult for Some Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual People?
For some gay and bisexual people the coming out process is difficult, for others it is not. Often lesbian, gay and bisexual people feel afraid, different, and alone when they first realize that their sexual orientation is different from the community norm. This is particularly true for people becoming aware of their gay, lesbian, or bisexual orientation as a child or adolescent, which is not uncommon. And, depending on their families and where they live, they may have to struggle against prejudice and misinformation about homosexuality. Children and adolescents may be particularly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of bias and stereotypes. They may also fear being rejected by family, friends,co-workers, and religious institutions. Some gay people have to worry about losing their jobs or being harassed at school if their sexual orientation became well known. Unfortunately, gay, lesbian and bisexual people are at a higher risk for physical assault and violence than are heterosexuals. Studies done in California in the mid 1990s showed that nearly one-fifth of all lesbians who took part in the study and more than one-fourth of all gay men who participated had been the victim of a hate crime based on their sexual orientation. In another California study of approximately 500 young adults, half of all the young men participating in the study admitted to some form of anti-gay aggression from name-calling to physical violence. -
What Can Be Done to Overcome the Prejudice and Discrimination the Gay Men, Lesbians, and Bisexuals Experience?
Research has found that the people who have the most positive attitudes toward gay men, lesbians and bisexuals are those who say they know one or more gay, lesbian or bisexual person well—often as a friend or co-worker. For this reason, psychologists believe negative attitudes toward gay people as a group are prejudices that are not grounded in actual experiences but are based on stereotypes and prejudice.
Furthermore, protection against violence and discrimination is very important, just as it is for other minority groups. Some states include violence against an individual on the basis of his or her sexual orientation as a "hate crime" and 10 U.S. states have laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Why is it Important for Society to be Better Educated About Homosexuality?
Educating all people about sexual orientation and homosexuality is likely to diminish anti-gay prejudice. Accurate information about homosexuality is especially important to young people who are first discovering and seeking to understand their sexuality—whether homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Fears that access to such information will make more people gay have no validity—information about homosexuality does not make someone gay or straight.
Are All Gay and Bisexual Men HIV Infected?
No. This is a commonly held myth. In reality, the risk of exposure to HIV is related to a person's behavior, not their sexual orientation. What's important to remember about HIV/AIDS is it is a preventable disease through the use of safe sex practices and by not using drugs. -
Gasband, I believe you brought up a valid issue. I will move your comment to a new thread "The great nature versus nurture debate".
Have a nice day... -
Duplicated post
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I find people who study homosexuality and people's behaviour a waste of their time...
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Ah... I dont quite understand your position...Originally posted by shade343:I find people who study homosexuality and people's behaviour a waste of their time...
Are you against Science in general?
Or are you against the study of human mind/behaviour?
I think Psychology is a rather new field... It helps to put lots of pre-conceived notions into test... Which Philosophy (yup, psychology has its roots in philosophy) couldn't...
And over the years, their stand in Homosexuality has changed from an extremely anti one (in which Homosexuality was labelled as a sexual disorder) to a more understanding after years of research on various topics... -
This is quite a good summary on what the various organisations think about reparative study:
Proponents
Various religious and ex-gay organizations, including PFOX, Exodus International, NARTH and the International Healing Foundation, as well as various minor ex-gay and transformational ministries advocate the belief that reparative therapy is genuine and works.
Conversion therapies are also advocated by various religious family values groups such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
Specific proponents, such as Charles Socarides, often have gay sons, leading some to suspect they are working out their own psychological issues in public through their advocacy of a therapy that doesn't work.
Opponents
Reparative therapies are opposed by a variety of groups, including gay rights organizations such as GLAAD, Stonewall and Outrage.
More importantly, many various professional medical and psychological bodies condemn conversion therapies. Such bodies include:
American Psychiatric Association (APA)
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Medical Association
American Psychological Association
American Counseling Association
American Federation of Teachers
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of Social Workers
National Association of Secondary School Principals
National Education Association
Royal College of Nursing.
On the question of whether therapy can change sexual orientation the APA answers:
"No. Even though most homosexuals live successful, happy lives, some homosexual or bisexual people may seek to change their sexual orientation through therapy, sometimes pressured by the influence of family members or religious groups to try and do so. The reality is that homosexuality is not an illness. It does not require treatment and is not changeable." [4] (http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html#cantherapychange)
Some religious organisations also oppose reparative therapies, including The Interfaith Alliance, New Ways Ministries and People for the American Way.
In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, American Psychological Association, American School Health Association, Interfaith Alliance Foundation, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, and National Education Association developed and endorsed a statement reading:
The most important fact about 'reparative therapy,' also sometimes known as 'conversion' therapy, is that it is based on an understanding of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major health and mental health professions. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of Social Workers, together representing more than 477,000 health and mental health professionals, have all taken the position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and thus there is no need for a 'cure.' ...health and mental health professional organizations do not support efforts to change young people's sexual orientation through 'reparative therapy' and have raised serious concerns about its potential to do harm.
Pay attention to the very last paragraph. It's clear that other than the fundamentalist Christianity's group constant lobbying for anti-gays sentiments, the rest of the medical/psychological professions had moved away from seeing homosexuality as a disorder. Since it's not a disorder, there's no need to "repair" the individuals who are homosexuals. -
This article is found in Washington Post. Quite a good critique of "reparative therapy". The conclusion is (of course) "it doesn't work".
washingtonpost.com
Vowing to Set the World Straight
Proponents of Reparative Therapy Say They Can Help Gay Patients
Become Heterosexual. Experts Call That a Prescription for Harm
By Sandra G. Boodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 16, 2005; HE01
Nicholas Cavnar said he tried everything he could think of in his 30-
year quest to become heterosexual. He spent years in therapy, paying
thousands of dollars for treatment designed to overcome his
homosexuality. He faithfully attended meetings of Christian self-help
groups for "strugglers." He married and fathered three children, a
metamorphosis featured on the cover of a Catholic magazine.
Yet every day, the 54-year-old Washington publishing executive
recalled, he had to suppress his deepest feelings about who he really
was -- emotions he thought he had left behind at 20 when, to the
delight of his devout family, he abruptly renounced his openly gay
life in San Francisco.
Three years ago, Cavnar said, after soul-searching prompted by the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he decided his days of "white-knuckling
it" were over. "I told my wife I couldn't not be gay anymore,"
recalled Cavnar. His biggest regret, he said, was the devastating
impact ending their 26-year marriage had on the woman who had
struggled with him.
Cavnar's odyssey -- from gay to ex-gay to ex-ex-gay -- is
inextricably linked to his long involvement in reparative therapy, a
controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gays straight.
While its supporters cite success stories from their clinical
practices as well as a recent and much debated study showing that
conversion therapy can work, the treatment is opposed by virtually
every medical and mental health organization, including the American
Medical Association, the U.S. Surgeon General and the American
Psychiatric Association (APA), which removed homosexuality from its
list of mental disorders in 1973.
Until the early 1990s the treatment, also known as reorientation
therapy, was largely relegated to religious groups or to the fringes
of mental health. Mainstream therapists have been taught to help
patients distressed about their homosexuality work toward self-
acceptance, to overcome the internalized homophobia thought to be the
cause of much emotional turmoil.
Reparative therapists reject the views held by an overwhelming
majority of mental health practitioners. They regard homosexuality as
a pathological preference forged in the crucible of a troubled
childhood and not, as most scientists believe, an inborn orientation
significantly influenced by biological factors such as genetics and
exposure to hormones in the womb.
"I don't think sexual orientation is genetically determined, but like
a lot of preferences we have in life is a complicated and
idiosyncratic mix of temperament and experience," said Warren
Throckmorton, a supporter of reparative therapy who is an associate
professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania and
former president of the American Mental Health Counselors
Association. "The other reason I think change is possible is that
I've worked with a lot of clients who've done it."
In the past decade, the growing influence of religious conservatives
and the national debate over gay rights, especially gay marriage, has
revived interest in the therapy, significantly raising its public
profile, spawning new practitioners and igniting debate about a
matter that had been considered settled, supporters and critics agree.
"Reparative therapy is the laetrile of mental health," said New York
psychiatrist Jack Drescher, referring to the quack cancer cure banned
in the United States in the 1970s.
To gay rights activist Wayne R. Besen, the author of "Anything But
Straight," a 2003 book that tracks the history of ex-gay groups, the
therapy is "a kinder, gentler form of homophobia. The argument has
shifted from 'You're harming society' to 'You're harming
yourselves.' " -
The Campaign
Web sites with names like "inqueery" and "freetobeme" have sprung up,
directing confused teenagers and frantic parents to reparative
counselors. Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), a
national group headquartered in Fairfax County, has sponsored highway
billboards in Rockville and Richmond that state "Ex-Gays Prove That
Change Is Possible."
PFOX, founded seven years ago to counter PFLAG -- Parents, Families
and Friends of Lesbians and Gays -- was active in the recent battle
over sex education in Montgomery County. Central to the dispute was
the way homosexuality would be taught.
As a result of a lawsuit, PFOX has won a seat on the board that will
help rewrite the health curriculum, and its officials say they plan
to push for inclusion of reparative therapy.
Reparative therapists have their own organization, the 1,000-member
California-based National Association for Research and Therapy of
Homosexuality (NARTH), founded in 1992. Its leaders often appear
at "Love Won Out" workshops that draw more than 1,000 participants
and are sponsored by Focus on the Family, a group founded by
conservative psychologist James Dobson, a staunch opponent of gay
rights who has ties to the Bush administration.
Mental health experts are alarmed by the resurgence of a treatment
they say has been discredited.
In the view of Drescher, chair of the APA's committee on gay, lesbian
and bisexual issues, reparative therapy's ascendance resembles the
resurrection of creationism, a religious belief at odds with science
that has been rechristened with the more scientific-sounding
name "intelligent design."
"Many people who try this treatment tend to be desperate, very
unhappy and don't know other gay people," said Drescher, who has
treated about a dozen men who previously underwent conversion
therapy. (Men are far more likely than women to receive the
treatment.)
"I see people who've been very hurt by this," said Drescher, who said
some people do manage to temporarily change their behavior, often by
becoming celibate, but not their sexual orientation. "They spend
years trying to change and are told they aren't trying hard enough."
Catherine Wulfensmith, 46, a family therapist in Monrovia, Calif.,
said she attempted suicide several times after reparative therapy
failed to alter her attraction to women. "I bought it hook, line and
sinker," she said. "If you don't change, what are you left with?"
The 'Fix'
Reparative therapy typically involves once- or twice-weekly
psychotherapy sessions lasting a minimum of two years; it may be
covered by insurance if it is listed as being for a "sexual disorder
not otherwise specified." Patients are encouraged to delve into their
childhood relationships, especially with the same-sex parent; to
cultivate straight friends and "gender-appropriate" activities such
as sports or sewing; and to avoid anything, or anyone, gay. Prayer is
often recommended.
NARTH co-founder Joseph Nicolosi, a clinical psychologist in Encino,
Calif., who coined the term reparative therapy and is one of its
leading practitioners, emphatically rejects the view that it is
ineffective and potentially damaging. He points to a study published
in 2003 by Columbia University psychiatrist Robert L. Spitzer which
found that therapy seemed to work for some highly motivated patients.
"It can only be damaging if the agenda of the therapist supersedes
that of the patient," said Nicolosi, who added that it should never
be forced on unwilling participants.
Although no rigorous outcome studies have been published, Nicolosi
estimates that one-third of patients treated at the Thomas Aquinas
Psychological Clinic, of which he is founding director,
experience "significant improvement -- they understand their
homosexuality and have some sense of control" but may still have gay
sex. Another third, he said, are "cured": They don't have gay sex and
the intensity and frequency of their same-sex desires is diminished,
but not necessarily gone. The other third fail to change.
Hector Roybal, a 52-year-old financial consultant in Los Angeles,
spent four years in intensive treatment with Nicolosi, who considers
him to be cured. Roybal concurs, but said he still sometimes
struggles with sexual feelings for men, although he has remained
faithful to his wife, the only woman to whom he says he feels
physically attracted.
"I saw myself as someone who had a problem with homosexuality but was
meant to be straight," said Roybal, who, like Nicolosi, is a
conservative Catholic. "This is about making a choice."
Although reparative therapists sometimes differ about the causes of
homosexuality, they are united in saying it is not inborn and it is
never normal.
Nicolosi maintains it is the result of a defective bond with the same-
sex parent. Boys who feel rejected by their fathers develop
a "defensive detachment" -- they reject them and identify with their
mothers and other females. Because opposites attract, he theorizes,
they are sexually drawn to men, even though what they are searching
for is their lost masculinity. Once they find it, he said, their
attraction to women will follow, although lifetime vigilance is
required to avoid slipping.
Even though reparative therapists say they support "free choice,"
they see nothing contradictory in their view that homosexuality is
pathological. Nor do they regard as incongruent their refusal to work
with a straight or bisexual client who thinks he or she might be gay.
In their view, homosexuals are doomed to miserable, unhealthy lives.
"We say to patients, 'Your true self is heterosexual,' " Nicolosi
said. He said he tells male patients, "Look at your body: It was
designed to fit a woman, not a man." -
The Study
Robert Spitzer sounds weary when discussing the study published two
years ago in the Archives of Sexual Behavior that earned him the
enmity of many of his colleagues and the admiration of reparative
therapists.
Spitzer's study has special resonance: In 1973 he was the driving
force behind the removal of homosexuality from psychiatry's
diagnostic manual.
Thirty years later, he said, he decided to test the widespread
hypothesis that reparative therapy never worked. "I like to challenge
conventional notions," he explained.
Despite the active cooperation of NARTH and ex-gay religious groups,
Spitzer said it took him more than 16 months to recruit 200 people
who had undergone treatment. He conducted 45-minute telephone
interviews and found that 66 percent of 143 men and 44 percent of 57
women, all of whom Spitzer described as "highly motivated" and almost
all of whom were "extraordinarily religious," had achieved "good
heterosexual function" lasting at least five years. They were in a
committed relationship, had satisfying heterosexual sex at least
monthly and said they were rarely or never bothered by homosexual
feelings.
In an accompanying commentary, former APA president Lawrence
Hartmann, a professor at Harvard Medical School, called Spitzer's
study "too flawed to publish." Hartmann noted the study was
retrospective, that it lacked controls or independent measurements,
and was based entirely on self-reports by people who were motivated
to say they had changed because of their affiliation with ex-gay or
anti-gay groups.
While Nicolosi and others frequently cite the study as proof
reparative therapy works, Spitzer said his results have been
misrepresented. "It bothers me to be their knight in shining armor
because on every social issue I totally disagree with the Christian
right," he said.
"What they don't mention is that change is pretty rare," he added,
noting that the subjects of his study were not representative of the
general population because they were considerably more religious.
And Spitzer calls "totally absurd" the twin hypotheses that everyone
is born straight and that homosexuality is a choice.
Drescher agrees. "There are probably a small number of people with
some flexibility in their sexual identity who can change," he
said. "Out of the hundreds of gay men I've treated, I've had one." · -
This paragraph which we should examine in more detail is the following one:
Although no rigorous outcome studies have been published, Nicolosi
estimates that one-third of patients treated at the Thomas Aquinas
Psychological Clinic, of which he is founding director,
experience "significant improvement -- they understand their
homosexuality and have some sense of control" but may still have gay
sex. Another third, he said, are "cured": They don't have gay sex and
the intensity and frequency of their same-sex desires is diminished,
but not necessarily gone. The other third fail to change.
Even for someone believes in reparative studies. He can have only:
1) 33.3% totally unchanged
2) 33.3% "significant improvement but still have gay sex." I find this statement hilarious. It's an oxymoron.
3) 33.3% diminishes in same-sex desires. Err, due to the fall in sex drive as one ages? We all know that 25 year-old is the peak in sex drive when testesterone level is at its peak. But then, these people do not change in the gender category in which they feel attracted to. So is this a real change? Can you change from sexually aroused by one gender to the other? NO! -
ehh.... what about bisexuality??
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what abt bisexuality?Originally posted by The man who was death:ehh.... what about bisexuality??
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Opponents of gay rights love to cite NARTH position on homosexuality.. However, it's important to examine what NARTH really is:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_nart.htm
Overview:
In the past, researchers attempted to change sexual orientation through psychotherapy, aversion therapy, nausea producing drugs, prayer, castration, electric shock, brain surgery, breast amputations, etc. All failed. These methods were largely abandoned by the mid-1970's. However, Outrage!, a British support group for lesbians and gays, recently found it necessary to ask the Royal College of Psychiatrists to renounce aversion therapy and instruct its members to halt "the use of all therapies that attempt to cure homosexuality." 1
Reparative Therapy emerged in the early 1980's as a new method of "curing" homosexuals. It was spearheaded by Elizabeth Moberly, a British, conservative Christian theologian. She based her theories on the findings of a few psychiatrists in the past whose conclusions had long been abandoned by almost all mental health professionals. Her belief is that homosexuality is caused by incompetence by the same-gender parent. Moberly determined...that the homosexual men in the studies were suffering from what she termed 'defensive detachment' and 'same sex ambivalence.' The theory presumes that the young boy, for any of a variety of reasons, did not bond with his father in a meaningful way." 2 Her book, published in the 1980s, has been recently reprinted and is still in print. 3 Her theory led to a treatment method in which a gay or lesbian develops a close but non-sexual relationship with a person of the same gender. This is expected to replace the close parental bond that was missing in childhood. According to her theory, heterosexual feelings would emerge during therapy, and homosexual feelings would fade over time. More details.
No peer-reviewed study has ever been published on reparative therapy. No longitudinal study has ever been conducted into its long-term effectiveness and hazards. Sufficient anecdotal evidence has surfaced to convince the large mental health professional societies, like the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, etc. to condemn reparative therapy as ineffective, and warn of potentially dangerous side-effects. 8 The one exception is the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) - the topic of this essay. They strongly advocate the use of reparative therapy, believing it to be very effective and safe.
These are your people who make use of psychology as a tool to further propagate their beliefs in their religions.. The important thing to note is still the fact that they are proposing the effectiveness of a therapy which they had not given proper research..
Further, most of these therapies are based on psychoanalytic theory which by itself has received more criticisms than any other modern psychological theories.. -
Just by looking at the difference in size between NARTH and APA.. It's not difficult to see that NARTH does not represent the mainstream Psychologist's views.. It never had and it will never be..
About NARTH:
NARTH was founded in 1992 as a "non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the research, therapy and prevention of homosexuality." It currently consists of "more than 1,000 mental-health professionals." These are believed to be psychiatrists, psychologists, other therapists, social workers, and behavioral scientists. 4,5 (This number represents a small percentage of mental health professionals; the American Psychological Association alone has over 132,000 members.) Anyone who is sympathetic to their goals who is not a therapist is asked to join as a "Friend of NARTH." Many conservative Christian ministries have done this.
The association states that their members follow many different religions and ethical systems, ranging from Roman "Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Baha'i, Protestant, to secular humanist/atheist." The vast majority of its members are believed to be from the conservative wings of Christianity and Judaism.
NARTH is becoming widely accepted among some Evangelical Christian ministries, because it is the only professional mental health organization that teaches that sexual orientation is a disorder, that it is chosen, and that it can be changed through effort.
They hold annual meetings at the same locations as the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA). They publish their NARTH Bulletin three times a year.