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Joseph Nicolosi (born January 21, 1947) is a clinical psychologist, founder and director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic, in Encino, California, and the president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). Nicolosi has studied, advocated, and practiced reparative therapy, which attempts to change the sexual orientation of homosexuals and bisexuals to heterosexual. Nicolosi holds a Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology.

Theories

Joseph Nicolosi says that he has concluded on the basis of his study and professional experience that homosexuality is the product of a mental disorder he describes as "gender-identity deficit" caused by an alienation from, and perceived rejection by, individuals of the subject's gender.

"The basic premise of reparative therapy is that the majority of clients (approximately 90%, in my experience) suffer from a syndrome of male [gender-identity deficit. It is this internal sense of incompleteness in one's own maleness which is the essential foundation for homoerotic attraction. The causal rule of reparative therapy is "Gender identity determines sexual orientation." We eroticize what we are not identified with. The focus of treatment therefore is the full development of the client's masculine gender identity."

Nicolosi suggests that the subject, as a boy, first experiences rejection by his father, then lapses into helplessness, and finally retreats to the security of his mother and defensively detaches from his father. According to Nicolosi, this purported defensive detachment emotionally isolates him from other males and from his own masculinity, causing homosexuality.

Love Won Out Conference

Focus on the Family's Love Won Out ministry claims to exhort and equip the church to respond to homosexuality from a biblical point of view. The conference bases its Prevention of Male Homosexuality session on NARTH research. In the session Prevention of Male Homosexuality: "Contrary to the popular myth that homosexuality is genetic, same-sex attraction is a preventable and treatable condition" Love Won Out questions if homosexuality may be unhealthy. Love Won Out shows in a statistic according to a study by NARTH "500 studies show self-destructive, maladaptive behavior associated with a gay lifestyle."

Nicolosi, on November 4, 2006, represented NARTH at the Love Won Out Conference speaking on Prevention of Male Homosexuality and on The Condition of Male Homosexuality. "Dr. Nicolosi is the president and principal research investigator for the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH)....Dr. Nicolosi is the clinical director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, Calif., where he specializes in the treatment of men with unwanted homosexuality.

Medical view of reparative therapy

The American Psychological Association Committee on Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Concerns claims that reparative therapy is rejected by most medical and mental health associations that have taken a position on the topic, on the grounds that attempts to change sexual orientation are often damaging to the person's well-being. The American Psychiatric Association states that "ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals' sexual orientation." Major organizations that reject reparative therapy include the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Education Association..

Quotations

... parents...can do something to influence their child's gender identity and future sexual orientation, even though there are no guarantees of the outcome. But they can certainly lay the foundation for a secure gender identity and thus provide what hundreds of dissatisfied homosexual strugglers have told us over and over was painfully absent in their own childhoods. And so there is very good reason for hope."

— 

... the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger."

— 

Usually some homosexual feelings will persist or recur during certain times in the life cycle. Therefore, rather than "cure," we refer to the goal of "change".... As one married ex-gay man described it: "For many years I thought I was gay. I finally realized I was not a homosexual, but really a heterosexual man with a homosexual problem." ... "Now those homosexual fantasies are more like a gnat buzzing around my ear." Another man explained: "A problem that used to have a capital 'H' now has a small 'h'."

— 

One of the beautiful things about a democracy is that social scientists can ruin a generation, and then come back 20 years later with our objective measures to validate what common sense should have told us.

Bibliography

• Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach
• Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy
• A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality -- Nicolosi co-wrote this title with his wife, Linda Ames Nicolosi.

See also

• Same-sex attraction
• Sexual orientation

References

1. Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, ISBN 0-7657-0142-1
2. Fathers of Male Homosexuals: A Collective Clinical Profile
3. Focus on the Family's Love Won Out Conference Guide (copyright 2005-2006), p. 11
4. Focus on the Family's Love Won Out Conference Guide (copyright 2005-2006), p. 31
5. Focus on the Family's Love Won Out Conference Agenda; Atlanta, Ga., November 4, 2006
6. Focus on the Family's Love Won Out Conference Guide (copyright 2005-2006)
7. Focus on the Family's Love Won Out Conference Guide (copyright 2005-2006), p. 9
8. Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel
9. Jason Cianciotto and Sean Cahill (2006). Youth in the crosshairs: the third wave of ex-gay activism. New York: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute.
10. Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel, 1999, American Psychological Association
11. New Book on Prevention Released in October 2002
12. Can Homosexuality Be Treated and Prevented?
13. Joseph Nicolosi, Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality, Jason Aronson, 1991, ISBN 0-87668545-9, pp. 165-166

External links

• American Psychiatric Association site Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel which explains the condemnation of reparative therapy by most health and mental health organizations.
• Book Excerpt: Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.
• Book Excerpt: Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.
• Book Excerpt: A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Nicolosi.
• Author Interview: A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Nicolosi.
• Review: Therapy Terminable and Interminable: 'Non-gay Homosexuals' Come Out of the Closet by professor James Weinrich. A scholarly review of Dr. Nicolosi's book on Reparative Therapy.
• Science, politics, and morality by professor Ed Manier. Claims about Joseph Nicolosi's lack of scientific evidence.
• Image of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi

• 1947 births
• Living people
• Ex-gay movement
• Sexual orientation and medicine