Soces: Fill & Download for Free

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2009/08/therapeutic.aspxhttp://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/therapeutic-response.pdfIn 2007 the APA appointed a six-member task force to examine 87 peer reviewed studies published between 1960 and 2007 about changing sexual orientation through psychotherapy.The task force's findings admittedly are inconclusive about whether or not sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) are harmful."As to the issue of possible harm, the task force was unable to reach any conclusion regarding the efficacy or safety of any of the recent studies of SOCE: 'There are no methodologically sound studies of recent SOCE that would enable the task force to make a definitive statement about whether or not recent SOCE is safe or harmful and for whom,' according to the report."

Deviating a bit from the other answers, this is related to SOCE (Society of Civil Engineers, let the money chant begin :P) and happened when we were in the first year.The SOCE student coordinator (which is probably what he was, I don't remember his exact designation) was a guy from third year and was very passionate, his words not mine, about everything "Civil". Evidently, he was also very passionate about giving stupid fundae to gullible first year-ites. Sample this, overheard during the very first SOCE meeting: "you wont be able to become a 9 pointer, if you had that ability you wouldn't have been stuck with Civil in the first place", whatever that meant.Anyways, the most ridiculous of the lot came just before some SOCE event which the coordinator was helping organize. Most first year-ites were not showing much interest in the event and had decided to skip it. The coordinator somehow came to know about this and took it upon himself to inspire/coerce us to attend the event. So, he came to our hall and summoned us to the quad and then gave us this whole speech on why we should attend the event which, to be fair to him, had some fairly good points. But, he decided to end it with this precious gem:Coordinator: You guys are doing D0 this semester, right? Who is the course instructor? (For the uninitiated, D0 was a zero credit course in the first year, which we just had to pass.)Us: Dr. XYZ.Coordinator: Oh, Dr. XYZ? He would be coming to the event too. And, you know what, he is very passionate about this event. So, we will be giving out event t-shirts to everybody who comes to the event and you will have to wear these t-shirts to the next Monday's lecture. Dr. XYZ will give a Fakka (F grade) to anybody who isn't wearing the SOCE t-shirt.Us: ......This had us in splits for a good ten minutes after he left. The sad part was that he was very serious about what he said.PS: Before anybody from SOCE gets offended, I should probably say that I have no intention of deriding SOCE in general. I have seen a lot of good work being done by my batchmates who were part of SOCE and SOCE events are indeed a good platform for meeting professors and interacting with them (so I have heard).

Trying to change someone's personality or psychological traits as a person is potentially extremely dangerous. Psychology is not a hard and fast science. The risk of psychological trauma is that once inflicted it is unpredictable and difficult to treat.The reason why the APA does not support efforts to change a persons orientation is a mixture of many factors.Although SOME people may have reported to have had positive results the overall trend is that it is not effective. The majority of persons do not actually experience a change in their sexual desires. They still desire same sex partners they just do not act on those desires. Which is a bit like training someone not to pet cute puppies. You could but what is the benefit and is it worth even a small chance of adverse psychological effects? Both being gay and petting puppies are not harmful to the person.These therapies often utilize techniques that have been proven to be potentially harmful to patients or not fully effective. Even if there is no long term studies of efficacy in orientation change we do know their methods have been proven to be very dangerous in general. These involve aversion therapies where the person is exposed to imagery of same sex acts or attractive same sex persons and shocking the person whenever those images come up or administering nausea inducing drugs. Another less risky version uses visualization and has the person visualize burning in hell or suffering terrible agony if they engage in same sex activities. The other methods used range from having someone act out their fears and frustration or having sex therapy where they engage in sex with opposite sex partners with a therapist present.The biggest problem is there are no studies showing these therapies to be effective in even a small majority of cases. Groups performing these activities claim a small percentage actually manage to change their orientation but even they admit that the vast majority do not actually succeed in changing their orientation only their behavior. They still desire same sex partners they just do not act on it.Also the extra details asks to leave out religiously based organizations but religion is deeply wound into these organizations. I do not know of one organization that advocates, promotes or performs these efforts that is not religiously supported, funded or motivated. Often these organizations are tied closely to religiously affiliated groups. If you leave out religiously based groups than there is nothing to speak about. These SOCE organizations would not exist in any great number were there not religious opposition to gay persons.It all comes down to this.There is no evidence that these therapies are helpful in the majority of cases.There is evidence that some persons have been harmed by SOCE.There is a large body of research evidence that indicates that being gay, lesbian or bisexual is compatible with normal mental health and social adjustment.True sexual orientation change is not achieved in the majority of cases. This is confirmed by several groups that advocate and perform these therapies themselves.Those that report they find being gay or lesbian to be distressing are overwhelmingly religious. 79% of those requesting such services claim religion was a motivating factor and 93% say religion is "very important to them".SOCE groups are almost always religiously based, supported, funded or staffed. The organizations that support these efforts also tend to promote views that being gay is somehow wrong.This can be summed up easily.SOCE = not effective in the majority of casesSOCE = potentially harmful to a small percentage of people.Gay = not harmfulIt comes down to, Why fix it if it is not broken? This is especially true when trying to fix it has even a small chance of breaking the person.When one adds in the religion factor it becomes clear that the therapies are more about trying to change peoples personality so they fit a certain religious doctrine not about helping them with an actual medical condition. Being gay is not considered a mental disorder or medical condition but a part of the natural spectrum of human behavior by modern medicine. This is a bit like putting someone into therapy so they will enjoy passover traditions. They may genuinely not enjoy passover foods and the therapy is intended to make them like a certain religiously prescribed food. Such a thing borders on religious subversion under a mask of medicine.The reason that gender change surgeries are performed is exactly why SOCE is not recommended. Attempting to change one's personality traits such as gender identity has not been proven to be effective and has the potential of severe damage and side effects. Surgery to confirm a person's gender identity on the other hand has been shown to be safe and very effective in producing improved psychological results compared to no treatment at all or efforts to change a persons gender identity.