February 5, 2013

Excerpts from Dr. Joseph Nicolosi’s article on the NARTH website: “Reparative Therapy posits two fundamentally distinct self-states in unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA) for males: The Assertive Self- State within which the client finds his true self, and the Shame Self-State within which he experiences his false self.” …

“The Self-State distinction essential to Reparative theory finds theoretical support in the writings of Joyce McDougall. In her clinical studies, she confirms Reparative theory’s understanding of homosexual enactment as a gender-based self-reparation; i.e., a means of “repairing” a wound in gender identity.”

“Joyce McDougall has investigated the central role of “theatre and role-playing” in non-typical forms of sexual activity, including homosexuality. She is among the few contemporary psychoanalysts willing to study such forms of sexuality. McDougall understands “sexual theatre” as an acting-out of intrapsychic sexual forces in a symbolic attempt to resolve an identity conflict. In this regard she confirms the classic psychoanalytic understanding of “perverse” (as the term was used in previous years) sexual activity as being rooted in identity confusion. Noting the repetitive-compulsive nature of these role enactments, McDougall found that while her patients complain about the constrained structure of these “erotic theatre pieces,” they could not abstain from their enactments: “…and have to do it again and again and again” (McDougall, 2000, p.182).”