Active intervention by the Committee of Concerned Psychoanalysts, most of whose members are members also of The American, has led to the temporary defeat of a resolution that would outlaw analytic psychotherapy of obligatory homosexuality.
At a May 21 meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Philadelphia, the Assembly voted to refer back to the Committee on National Affairs a “Position Statement on Sexual Orientation and Treatment” passed by the APA Board of Trustees last March. The proposed statement reads as follows: “The APA does not endorse any psychiatric treatment which is based either upon a psychiatrist's assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder or a psychiatrist's intent to change a person's sexual orientation. A psychiatrist should remain nonjudgmental and respectful of a patient's sexual orientation and the patient's objectives for treatment.”
This statement was adopted by the APA Board after relentless lobbying by the APA's Gay Caucus. Some board members commented that “to vote against it would have been political suicide.” Our committee's objections to it, communicated to the individual Assembly members, are as follows:
The statement is in violation of First Amendment prohibitions against the abridgment of freedom of speech and of the press. According to the statement, “any treatment” by the psychiatrist, even that requested by the patient, will be declared “unendorsable” as proceeding from the “psychiatrist's assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder,” as evidenced in his writings and speeches. The psychiatrist must therefore remain silent and censored as to his true medical conclusions or be unable to practice.
The statement is in violation of the Constitutional protection against the restraint of trade, and is in violation of the psychiatric code of ethics respecting the patient's wishes. Those who wish to be treated by the psychiatrist of their choice and who wish to change their sexual orientation will not be free to do so.
The statement is in direct violation of the May 1993 resolution of The Americans Social Issues Committee, adopted to protect members from restrictions sought by the APA's Gay Caucus.
Declaring psychotherapy aimed at relieving unwanted homosexual orientation “unendorsable” is to state that damage has been caused, and this has never been proven. In fact, the reverse is true, as may be seen in the survey of over 1,275 psychoanalysts conducted by Houston MacIntosh (JAPA 42:4, 1994). The patients in question have been helped according to their own wishes. To deny them their right to treatment is immoral and unlawful.
Those who oppose the statement object to its first sentence as unprincipled. The only fair solution would be to permit the second sentence to stand on its own: “A psychiatrist should remain nonjudgmental and respectful of a patient's sexual orientation and of the patients objectives for treatment.”
In addition, the committee requested, in a May 9 letter to Dr. Bernard Pacella, reaffirmation of The American's Resolution of May 1993, as well as an affirmation that (1) patients have a right to choose any analyst for treatment and (2) analysts have the right to treat patients based on their own scientific investigations and conclusions. We strongly urge that The American, through its officers, make it known to the APA that we will tolerate no infringement of our right to practice in accordance with psychoanalytic ethics and the May 1993 resolution.
The Committee of Concerned Psychoanalysts is not an official component of The American, and is not authorized to make statements on the Association's behalf.
C. Downing Tait, Jr., M.D., co-chair
Atlanta
C.W. Socarides, M.D., co-chair
New York