Psych Professor Can Turn People Straight?

[Swamp56]

Today we were talking about sexuality in my psychology class and he was discussing how fascinating and extremely complex it is. He also stated that he didn't care about people's sexuality and said that it's natural for there to be gay/straight people.

Anyway, he said that he could make a gay person straight in 1 years time. He said it would be extremely difficult, but that it could be done. He said that through hormone therapy along with other forms of intensive therapy, it's possible.

I found this statement interesting - he's been a psychologist for a looong time and he knows what he is talking about, but I never heard of such a thing. He used the examples of adaptation of people such as in prison (who revert to homosexual behavior), and other things to show how humans are able to adapt to different environmental setting, and with the proper hormonal treatment, that you can alter the preference of someone.

[Z3ni]

Yeah I think its possible to.

I want proof

Also, men reverting to homosexual behavior doesn't mean they're turning homosexual. It just means they're <b>acting</b> homosexual. There's a big difference. Plus, there is a lot more to sexuality than hormones.

[Swamp56]

Originally Posted by Drizzt DoUrden

I want proof
Plus, there is a lot more to sexuality than hormones.

Yes, he was also saying that, but he also said that with extensive therapy and hormone treatment that it's possible. I'll ask him next class exactly what he is speaking of.

[NickT]

You might be able to change someone's preference, as he said, through hard work, but I don't think it'd be permanent.

Course I wouldn't do that for the world. :P

[Just Adam]

you cant change someones sexuality all you can do i brain wash tehm of sorts into believeing they want the opposite sex through negative message enforcment...

imagine your strappedinto a chair put ona drip to support you and bombarded with negative homosexual propaganda video and audio for say 12 months like he said your sleep depreived sensory deprived isolated your mind turning in on itself...this can make you straight as tehy would clasify it because youve been hit with so much negative feeling towards yourself you mentally run away from beeing it.

its the sort of tactics they use on kids in these bible pray the gay away camps only it would be alot more intense

[Markio]

Originally Posted by Swamp56

...he's been a psychologist for a looong time and he knows what he is talking about...

Or maybe he's just set in outdated beliefs...

as if homosexuality is a condition... if he's going to claim that, he better claim to be able to turn a straight person gay too because he's just talking down to gays saying that our lives are less than a straight person's by trying to turn gays straight.

and i dont even want to imagine what all that hormone therapy might do to a person, it would probably take continued "therapy" and hormone treatment for their entire life or they would keep reverting to their natural state. it sounds like a very sad and dependent existence that he's suggesting.

[Swamp56]

Originally Posted by paco

as if homosexuality is a condition... if he's going to claim that, he better claim to be able to turn a straight person gay too because he's just talking down to gays saying that our lives are less than a straight person's by trying to turn gays straight.

I'm guessing he will claim to that too.

[Jack2009]

I want to know more about this....

Who is he? And does he have any books out there (I know some professors have books out).

I want to be 50/50 bi, they seem to have more fun.

[Swamp56]

Originally Posted by Jack2009

I want to know more about this....

Who is he? And does he have any books out there (I know some professors have books out).

Erm, he's an adjunct professor at the University of Hartford...his name is Professor Paul Bursinkas, C.A.S. . That's all I really know about him.

Originally Posted by Swamp56

I'm guessing he will claim to that too.

well then he better do it to himself because at some point in psychology classes there is a unit on ethics and legality, and changing a person's sexuality would not bode well because turning a gay person straight is the same thing as turning a straight person gay, except that more people would get angry if you suggested turning straight people gay and either way you're making someone's life hell for no real benefit.

[carrie90]

I'll believe it when I see it

[malachite]

Booooooo

[Gaetan]

Has he published a book? Or even an article of findings in a peer-reviewed journal? I'd bet it's plausible, but still...let's see some hard data.

[Black Cat]

Interesting. I would normally be totally against this sort of thing, as I believe orientation is something we as individuals have no control over. I'd also like to know a bit more about his theories, I mean he doesn't seem like the normal doctors who are completely bonkers when they say they can "convert" gay people into straight people.

[Greggers]

They thought that the world was flat for years.

Then people proved it was round.

People thought homosexuality was a sickness and it had a cure.

Then people proved it was a natural sexuality that is not harmful.

...Maybe your prof is still clinging to his flat world...

[pirateninja]

Well, for one thing, seeing as the American Psychological Association has made it clear that:

"the American Psychological Association reaffirms its position that homosexuality per se is not a mental disorder and opposes portrayals of sexual minority youths and adults as mentally ill due to their sexual orientation"

and

"the American Psychological Association concludes that there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation"

then I would say that your Prof doesn't know what he's talking about. I suggest you refer him to this; http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publicati...tion-resp.html .

As for prison, everyone has a libido, and when prisoners have gay sex, it's not because they suddenly like men; it's something to fuck. Like say if you're hungry and you like cheese, but there's no cheese in the pantry, only bread, you'll eat the bread because you're hungry.

It can't be done. Just ask all the gays and lesbians who struggled through therapy when it was outlawed and remained gay. Even ask the "ex-gays"; from everything I've heard from them, they still like the same sex, but just choose not to give in to their desires.

[Chip]

I think he's misguided and likely not really knowledgeable in the area he's speaking about. Unless and until he has extensive studies with hundreds of subjects and consistent results, he's talking out of his ass.

Additionally, when he's speaking of the situation of prisoners and homosexual activity, it sounds like he doesn't have even the slightest understanding of situational adaptation or even of gender studies; there are several studies showing prisoners who participate in homosexual behavior while in prison adapt back to their normal heterosexual behavior upon release. This is simply a function of one's sexual drives overriding one's sexual attraction, and has nothing to do with actual sexual orientation. It's really no different than genuinely straight guys who perform in gay porn simply because it pays well. They aren't gay, and porn doesn't make them gay, they just are willing to have sex with men for a paycheck.

I would agree that gender identity is complex and there are numerous factors, but from the literature I've read, it has less to do with hormones and more to do with hardwired attributes in the brain; if what he were saying had any truth to it, you can bet the Exodus people would have discovered this years ago and be trumpeting it from the treetops.

It's rather disturbing to hear someone making a claim like that in a college class when there's almost certainly no credible literature to back it up. It has the effect of perpetuating stereotypes and inaccurate information amongst a new generation of adults.

By the way, I did a quick check and I can't find any citations by him in the literature at all, and no references to anything related to gender studies or reparative therapy. It's disturbing that an adjunct would be allowed to make such controversial claims to a large class of students and represent them as fact.

[RaRa]

Who'd wanna be straight? Eww.