23 October 2009

If It Ain't Broke...

The more I've read from Dr. Warren Throckmorton, the more I appreciate his moderate approach and balanced perspective, even if I'm unsure of some of his work and theory. Of course, he initially began winning me over with his critiques of Byrd et al's reviews of In Quiet Desperation and their misquotations and distortion of the work of others. My heart was immediately warmed, and I felt the tinge of affinity one feels for the enemy of an enemy.

I recently ran across his article, I Am Not a Reparative Therapist, from a web site with some of his archived work, and I gained even more appreciation for his way of thinking as he raised many of the questions and concerns I've had, including many points of dispute I came up with while listening to Nicolosi at the last Evergreen conference.

Check it out if you have doubts about the "I HAVE THE ANSWER" reparative therapists but have never fallen into the illogical trap of dismissing all theories around "nurture" of homosexuality as bunk and adopted a strictly and exclusively deterministic or genetic basis for homosexuality, despite lack of irrefutable proof as of yet, just because the flawed theories and overconfident assertions you've encountered in your own experience prove incomplete or don't apply to you--in other words, if you're a fair-thinking, open-minded individual. Oooo, did I just say that? Yeah, I did. Diplomacy be damned, I'm in a mildly flippant mood right now. It happens. Get used to it.

3 comments:

JonJon said...

Hmmm, Throckmorton's website is blocked at work. Are you sure that's really not just a link to porn.

Amy Grigg said...

Thanks for those links. They helped solidify for me some things that have been bothering me about reparative therapy.

Samantha said...

I've been watching him for a long time and appreciate him a great deal (and I've participated in some of his research). He and some colleagues were key players in the move to hand responsibility for treatment back to homosexual clients, explain the different options and "success/failure" percentages, take belief systems into account and allow the clients to choose their therapies through education, rather than simply trusting the therapist or psychologist to decide what's best for them.

He's also given me some huge insight as to why some people are able to successfully navigate MOMs, and others are not. Pretty important for someone like me. :-)