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from Clinical/Therapeutic Issues
"Gay-Positive" Therapy
Recommended to a Married Man?
NARTH Scientific Advisory Committee member Joseph Berger, M.D. recently
sent NARTH a copy of a letter he wrote to Dr. Paul Garfinkel, Chairman
of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and
director a sexual-disorders clinic.
Dr. Berger describes the following situation: a patient in his early
thirties came to the clinic, who was married and wished to remain
married, but who thought of himself as having homosexual attractions.
He had not been able to have sexual intercourse with his wife, but his
history of sexual relationships with men had been very limited and not
particularly satisfying.
The patient strongly expressed the desire to remain married and to
eventually have a family.
The man had seen a number of different psychiatrists and was assessed at
the University of Toronto's clinic. But according to Dr. Berger, the
patient was not offered the type of therapy he sought.
"I am appalled that your report, signed by the head of the clinic, no
less," Dr. Berger wrote, "which suggested to the patient that he see a
'gay-positive' therapist...in spite of the patient's expressed wish to
become more comfortably heterosexual.
"How can you justify a report being sent out from a center that claims
to be one of Canada's leading centers in psychiatry, with the statement
'sexual orientation is not mutable'? Is there a deliberate suppression
of all the evidence indicating positive results from psychotherapeutic
treatment?"
Dr. Berger, a NARTH Scientific Advisory Board member, is the author of a
paper on treatment of male homosexuality published in the American
Journal of Psychotherapy in 1994. He is also an acknowledged expert in
the field, yet the patient's request for help in overcoming his unwanted
attractions was not granted.
On an academic level, Dr. Berger said the clinic has not invited any
expert to speak who could offer a rebuttal of the claims that
homosexuality is an "innate, irreversible, normal, healthy, alternative
form of sexual expression."
"When it comes to depriving patients of viable treatment alternatives,"
Dr. Berger wrote, "your clinic does a great disservice to the public."
Dr. Berger described another patient who, a decade ago, had also been
denied help for his unwanted same-sex attractions.
"This person, a high-functioning professional, came to my office and
said to me, 'Ten years ago I went to the Clarke Institute. They told me
I was gay and should accept it. If I had listened to them, I would be
dead by now.' This man was living a fully heterosexual life."
"I think that in your department the distinctions between compassion,
political correctness, scientific accuracy, and appropriate treatment,
have become severely distorted in the area of sexual disorders."
Updated: 8 February 2008
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