APA 'ignoring the science' on homosexual reparative therapy [Excerpts]
A Christian attorney says the American Psychological Association's rejection of therapy designed to help homosexuals leave their lifestyle is "devoid of science, reality and the common practices of a counselor."
On Wednesday, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued a strong condemnation of reparative therapy, declaring that mental health professionals should not tell homosexual clients they can change their sexual behavior through therapy or other treatments.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, says the APA is a political organization that has chosen to leave science behind.
"When it declassified homosexuality in the 1970s, it did it against the background of a lot of science that continued to classify it as a mental disorder. It also ignored over 120 years of research, which by the way has recently been published showing that individuals who are same-sex attracted can change," he notes.
"Consequently, the APA's position that you're born with it and that it would be detrimental to counsel someone to change or leave behind their same-sex attractions is simply ignoring the science."
Staver says the APA typically recommends client-directed counseling -- a counselor being sensitive to the request of a client -- except when a client does not want to act on their same-sex attractions.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=634346
[TBC: The premise is that the field of psychology has been left to the world. But, one cannot be reminded too often that psychology is the world. Too many have approached the question of psychology from the assumption that it is a science (i.e., something God built into His creation) that only lacks qualified Christian personnel in order to make it work. Despite being more than 30 years old, it is again worth considering Dr. Sigmund Koch’s comments concerning his own field of endeavor: “The hope of psychological science became indistinguishable from the fact of psychological science. The entire subsequent history of psychology can be seen as a ritualistic endeavor to emulate the forms of science in order to sustain the delusion that it already is a science” (The American Scholar, Autumn 1973, p. 66). Consequently, even secular psychologists recognize that psychology began as a theory, has never advanced beyond a theory, and will remain a theory. That exposure continues today.]
