Joseph Nicolosi

Joseph Nicolosi (born January 21, 1947) is a clinical psychologist, founder and director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic, in Encino, California, and a Past-President of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). [ [http://www.narth.com/menus/officers.html NARTH Officers ] ] Nicolosi has advocated and practiced reparative therapy, which attempts to help people overcome or reduce unwanted homosexual feelings. Nicolosi has described his theories in "Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach" and two other books. Nicolosi has concluded on the basis of his study and professional experience that homosexuality is often the product of a condition he describes as "gender-identity deficit" caused by an alienation from, and perceived rejection by, individuals of the subject's gender. Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., "Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality", Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, ISBN 0-7657-0142-1] He holds a Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology.

Books

Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality

Nicolosi's first book was "Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach". It was published in 1991. This book introduced the term "reparative therapy". [cite web|url=http://www.glaad.org/media/guide/GLAAD_MediaRefGuide_7thEdition.pdf|title=GLAAD Media Reference Guide |author=GLAAD|accessdate=September 2006] Nicolosi acknowledged in the preface that psychotherapy to change male homosexuality was not new, identifying his innovation as the integration of several strands of clinical research. These included research into the development of male gender-identity, histories of family dynamics, and techniques of psychodynamic psychotherapy of male homosexuality.

The introduction summarized the main themes of the book. It defined non-gay homosexual men as men who, while sexually attracted to other men, reject a gay identity. Nicolosi argued that psychiatry's de-classifying of homosexuality as a mental illness has lead to the abandonment of these men. Nicolosi insisted that homosexuality is a developmental problem that often results from problems between a boy and his father, or between a boy and his male peers, leading to a failure to internalize male gender-identity. This disenfranchisement from males produces eroticization of maleness. Alienation from the body and deficits in the sense of personal power could also be factors. According to Nicolosi, homosexuality thus represents a drive to repair the original gender-identity injury. Biological influences on sexual orientation were granted only a limited role; rather than being direct causes, they simply made gender-identity injury more likely. Nicolosi mentioned the problems he saw with gay relationships, including instability, promiscuity, narcissism, and an over-emphasis on sex.

Nicolosi also wrote that male homosexuals have difficulty with nonerotic male friendships. Nicolosi complained that people who do not value homosexuality as much as heterosexuality were deemed homophobic, and wrote that it was legitimate to place higher worth on heterosexuality within the context of one's own value system. Nicolosi criticized psychiatry for falsely claiming to be value neutral, arguing that its attributing the problems of non-gay homosexual men to self-hatred devalued their struggles. Nicolosi concluded the introduction with a description of reparative therapy. Nicolosi wrote that it was based on object relations theory and empirical studies on gender identity. Nicolosi described its goals as including explaining the family dynamics that produced homosexuality, making peace with one's father, growing in self-acceptance, and building non-erotic friendships with people of the same sex.

Nicolosi emphasised the importance of the transference relationship. Nicolosi granted that female clinicians could play a role in treating male clients, but stressed that ultimately they must surrender them to male therapists. Nicolosi wrote that reparative therapy is not a cure in the sense of erasing all homosexual feelings, but that it could improve men's relationships with other men and strengthen masculine identification. It could also help some men to achieve their goal of celibacy, and help others to become ready for heterosexual marriage.

In addition to the introduction, the book contained a preface, a references section, an index, and twenty chapters, arranged in three main sections: "Striving for Gender Identity", "Related Problems", and "Psychotherapy". The first section contained the chapters "Non-Gay Homosexuals: Who Are They", "The Politics of Diagnosis", "The Failure of the Mental Health Profession", "The Importance of the Father-Son Relationship", "Formation of the Father-Son Bond", and "Failure of the Father-Son Relationship". The second section contained the chapters "Problems Emerging in Childhood", "Other Factors: Mother and Family Relations", "Physiogenetic Factors", "Associated Features of the Homosexual Personality", "Homosexual Love Relationships", "Gay Sexuality", and "The Refusal to Acknowledge Pathological Elements". The third section contained the chapters "The Treatment", "The Therapeutic Relationship", "Therapeutic Issues", "Group Psychotherapy", "The Initial Interview", "The Issue of Individual Psychotherapy", and "The Process of Group Psychotherapy".

In the eleventh chapter, "Homosexual Love Relationships", Nicolosi wrote, "Each one of us, man and woman alike, is driven by the power of romantic love. These infatuations gain their power from the unconscious drive to become a complete human being. In heterosexuals, it is the drive to bring together the male-female polarity through the longing for the other-than me. But in homosexuals, it is the attempt to fulfill a deficit in wholeness of one’s original gender."

In the fourteenth chapter, "The Treatment", Nicolosi wrote, "Growth through reparative therapy is in one way like the gay model of coming out of the closet. That is, it is an ongoing process. Usually some homosexual desires will persist or recur during certain times in the life cycle. Therefore, rather than "cure", we refer to the goal of "change", a meaning shift beginning with a change in identification of self. 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." Elsewhere in the same chapter, Nicolosi wrote: "Another man explained: "A problem that used to have a capital 'H' now has a small 'h'."

Healing Homosexuality

Nicolosi's second book was "Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy", published in 1993. "Healing Homosexuality" was written with the assistance of Lucy Freeman, who was mentioned on the title page but not listed on the cover as a co-author. Nicolosi wrote in the introduction that, "...in order to preserve the privacy of the men, each case history has been woven as a composite of several clients with similar issues. No case story fits any particular client in every detail. Any resemblance to any one particular individual is purely coincidental." Nicolosi explained that these men were representative of those he had encountered in the twelve years in which he treated over two hundred homosexual clients.

Semi-fictionalized descriptions of the treatment of eight homosexual men (Albert, Tom, Father John, Charlie, Dan, Steve, Edward, and Roger) were given in the first through to the eighth chapters. The ninth chapter was "Men Together - How Group Therapy Heals", an account of group therapy. In it Nicolosi wrote that group therapy could be a source of healthy male relationships. The tenth chapter was "How Reparative Therapy Works", a general description of reparative therapy. In it Nicolosi wrote, "The basic premise of reparative therapy is that the majority of homosexual clients suffer from a syndrome of male gender-identity deficit. It is this internal sense of incompleteness of one's own maleness that 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." "Healing Homosexuality" also contained a references section and an index. [ Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., "Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy", Jason Aronson, 1993, ISBN 0-7657-0144-8]

A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality

Nicolosi's third book was "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality", published in 2002. This book was cowritten by Nicolosi and his wife, Linda Ames Nicolosi. It used a wide range of sources, including books by psychoanalysts Irving Bieber and Charles Socarides, works by gay writers Camille Paglia, Andrew Sullivan, and Simon LeVay, and work by psychologists Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley. It contained an introduction and ten chapters: "Masculinity Is An Achievement", "The Pre-Homosexual Boy", "Born This Way?", "All in the Family", "Friends and Feelings", "Confronting Adolescence", "From Tomboys to Lesbians", "The Politics of Treatment", "The Healing Process", and "A Mother's Journal".

In the fourth chapter, "All in the Family", Nicolosi wrote that a 1996 book by Seymour Fisher and Roger P. Greenberg, "Freud Scientifically Reappraised: Testing the Theories and Therapy", supported the hypothesis that a son having a poor relationship with his father promotes the development of homosexuality. He also recommended four ways that fathers could interact with their sons to diminish the chance of homosexual development: rough games, sharing a shower, going on trips together, and tucking the son into bed.

In the sixth chapter, "Confronting Adolescence", Nicolosi criticized what he considered a misunderstanding about the term "reparative therapy": "Over the years, gay activists have been angered by the term "reparative therapy". "You're trying to repair us," they tell me, "as you would fix a car or a transmission." In fact, "repair" does not apply to something being done to the client, but instead speaks of the nature of the same-sex erotic drive, which is itself a reparative attempt at health. Those authentic same-sex emotional needs are seeking fulfillment (and thus they are "reparative" in nature), but the person is approaching the task of reparation of the deficit in a self-defeating and ultimately unfulfilling way, namely through sex."

In the eighth chapter, "The Politics of Treatment", Nicolosi discussed the issue of gender identity disorder. Referring to the work of Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley, Nicolosi argued that treatment of children with this condition was justified, because of the distress it causes to them, because it was indicative of a deeper maladaptation, and because it is a strong predictor of future homosexuality. Nicolosi wrote, "...the psychiatric profession has created an internal inconsistency when it categorizes gender-identity disorder as a psychiatric illness while labeling the adult outcome (homosexuality) as normal." [Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D. & Linda Ames Nicolosi, "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality", IVP Books, 2002, ISBN 0-8308-2379-4]

Love Won Out Conference

Focus on the Family's Love Won Out ministry aims 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. Love Won Out suggests that homosexuality may be unhealthy.

Nicolosi, on November 4, 2006, [Focus on the Family's Love Won Out Conference Agenda; Atlanta, Ga., November 4, 2006] represented NARTH at the Love Won Out Conference speaking on "Prevention of Male Homosexuality" and on "The Condition of Male Homosexuality". [Focus on the Family's Love Won Out Conference Guide (copyright 2005-2006)]

Bibliography

# Nicolosi, Joseph (1991). "Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach". Jason Aronson, Inc. ISBN 0-87668-545-9.
# Nicolosi, Joseph (1993). "Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy". Jason Aronson, Inc. ISBN 0-7657-01448.
# Nicolosi, Joseph & Nicolosi, Linda Ames (2002). "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality". InterVarsity Press. ISBN-10 0-8308-2379-4.

See also

* Same-sex attraction
* Sexual orientation

References

External links

* [http://www.narth.com/docs/preventing.html Author Interview: "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality"] by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Nicolosi.
* [http://www.narth.com/docs/repair.html Book Excerpt: "Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality"] by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.
* [http://www.narth.com/docs/cases.html Book Excerpt: "Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy"] by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.
* [http://www.narth.com/docs/excerpt.html Book Excerpt: "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality"] by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Nicolosi.
* [http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050629/050628_LWO_hmed_10p.h2.jpgImage of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi]
* [http://math.ucsd.edu/~weinrich/NCLSWNRC.HTML Review: "Therapy Terminable and Interminable: 'Non-gay Homosexuals' Come Out of the Closet"] by professor James Weinrich. A scholarly review of "Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality".