- Pronouns
- He/Him, They/Them
'Modern' gay conversion therapy originates with the neurologist Sigmund Freud, who believed that homosexuality could in some circumstances be 'cured' with hypnotherapy. Freud is on record as saying that he did not think homosexuality was anything to be ashamed of and that the prospects for conversion therapy were not good, but nonetheless, modern conversion therapy starts with Freud.
Freud was not the first to try to 'cure' homosexuality or change the sexual preferences of sexual minorities. Some kind of 'corrective', coercive attacks against homosexuals has probably existed for as long as homosexuality has, and in some societies exists to this day. Lesbians in Jamaica, India and South Africa are all at risk of 'corrective rape' by bigots who think this will cure them of their 'disease'. Lesbians in South Africa are doubly punished as this is also the leading cause of HIV amongst that demographic. Corrective rape also targets gay men.
Freud's daughter, Anna, herself a prominent psychoanalyst in Britain, went further than her father in this field. She, along with Melanie Klein (herself a student of Sigmund's close associate Sándor Ferenczi) were leading proponents of conversion therapy, and Anna Freud disputed her father's famous letter to a mother written in 1935 where he told the recipient to accept her son's 'defect'. Both Freud's spread conversion therapy theories to North America and in the second half of the 20th century, it was American-based academics who led the way in developing conversion therapy.
Edmund Bergler, an Austrian who fled to America in 1938, pursued confrontational therapy, blaming the homosexual for their 'disease' (as homosexuality was classified by the American Psychiatric Association), berating, bullying and belittling them, and claimed with the right therapy, 90% of homosexuals could be cured. Bergler broke professional ethics by violated doctor-patient confidentiality, and was a leading critic of the biologist and bisexual Alfred Kinsey, who like other prominent LGBT people at the time tried to show that one could lead a perfectly normal life as a homosexual.
More recent proponents of conversion therapy include National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) - who thankfully are no longer allowed to treat minors thanks to Californian law - and Exodus International, whose chairman John Paulk would eventually come out as gay in 2013.
The means and methods by which conversion therapy vary from conditioning and verbal abuse such as talk therapy and 'praying the gay away', to outright assault and violence - aversion therapy.
Conversion therapy has been used as punishment for crime - or an alternative to prison sentences. Alan Turing famously was chemically castrated via injections of what was then called stilboestrol (now known as diethylstilbestrol or DES), a synthetic oestrogen, following a conviction for homosexual acts in the 50s, a form of state sanctioned conversion therapy. The lashings, whippings and stonings that are frequently seen in Islamic countries do not fall under the conversion therapy as traditionally used, but in Indonesia these have been accompanied by promises by police to "condition" the victims of these human rights abuses to not be LGBT.
In the western world, conversion therapy largely is something done by private individuals, although even in the 21st century some medical professionals attempt to 'cure' homosexuals. Tactics range from electroshock torture, ice pick lobotomies and aversion therapy, along with verbal and physical abuse, designed to 'deconstruct' the victims and 'rebuild' them.
Tens of thousands of the victims of conversion therapy are children some as young as 10 years old, yet despite this and the consensus of academics and medical professionals that it does not work, just two countries (the tiny islands of Taiwan and Malta) and a handful of state, city and territory governments have passed legislation against conversion therapy. Some professional bodies also ban the practice, but it remains an area where activists and allies need to put pressure on governments and other bodies to address. Several countries and states are considering bans, but others - in spite of the scientific consensus, in spite of the effects conversion therapy has on the victims - such as Malaysia and Indonesia are promoting its use.
In the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights and lives, conversion therapy is an emerging and ongoing battleground, and one the movement can ill-afford to neglect.
Freud was not the first to try to 'cure' homosexuality or change the sexual preferences of sexual minorities. Some kind of 'corrective', coercive attacks against homosexuals has probably existed for as long as homosexuality has, and in some societies exists to this day. Lesbians in Jamaica, India and South Africa are all at risk of 'corrective rape' by bigots who think this will cure them of their 'disease'. Lesbians in South Africa are doubly punished as this is also the leading cause of HIV amongst that demographic. Corrective rape also targets gay men.
Freud's daughter, Anna, herself a prominent psychoanalyst in Britain, went further than her father in this field. She, along with Melanie Klein (herself a student of Sigmund's close associate Sándor Ferenczi) were leading proponents of conversion therapy, and Anna Freud disputed her father's famous letter to a mother written in 1935 where he told the recipient to accept her son's 'defect'. Both Freud's spread conversion therapy theories to North America and in the second half of the 20th century, it was American-based academics who led the way in developing conversion therapy.
Edmund Bergler, an Austrian who fled to America in 1938, pursued confrontational therapy, blaming the homosexual for their 'disease' (as homosexuality was classified by the American Psychiatric Association), berating, bullying and belittling them, and claimed with the right therapy, 90% of homosexuals could be cured. Bergler broke professional ethics by violated doctor-patient confidentiality, and was a leading critic of the biologist and bisexual Alfred Kinsey, who like other prominent LGBT people at the time tried to show that one could lead a perfectly normal life as a homosexual.
More recent proponents of conversion therapy include National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) - who thankfully are no longer allowed to treat minors thanks to Californian law - and Exodus International, whose chairman John Paulk would eventually come out as gay in 2013.
The means and methods by which conversion therapy vary from conditioning and verbal abuse such as talk therapy and 'praying the gay away', to outright assault and violence - aversion therapy.
Conversion therapy has been used as punishment for crime - or an alternative to prison sentences. Alan Turing famously was chemically castrated via injections of what was then called stilboestrol (now known as diethylstilbestrol or DES), a synthetic oestrogen, following a conviction for homosexual acts in the 50s, a form of state sanctioned conversion therapy. The lashings, whippings and stonings that are frequently seen in Islamic countries do not fall under the conversion therapy as traditionally used, but in Indonesia these have been accompanied by promises by police to "condition" the victims of these human rights abuses to not be LGBT.
In the western world, conversion therapy largely is something done by private individuals, although even in the 21st century some medical professionals attempt to 'cure' homosexuals. Tactics range from electroshock torture, ice pick lobotomies and aversion therapy, along with verbal and physical abuse, designed to 'deconstruct' the victims and 'rebuild' them.
Tens of thousands of the victims of conversion therapy are children some as young as 10 years old, yet despite this and the consensus of academics and medical professionals that it does not work, just two countries (the tiny islands of Taiwan and Malta) and a handful of state, city and territory governments have passed legislation against conversion therapy. Some professional bodies also ban the practice, but it remains an area where activists and allies need to put pressure on governments and other bodies to address. Several countries and states are considering bans, but others - in spite of the scientific consensus, in spite of the effects conversion therapy has on the victims - such as Malaysia and Indonesia are promoting its use.
In the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights and lives, conversion therapy is an emerging and ongoing battleground, and one the movement can ill-afford to neglect.
