By Bella Gill In 1920 a man named Sigmund Freud published a paper called “The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman.” (Psychogenesis: the cause or reason mental illness is occurring.) This paper described the analysis of a female patient Freud “treated” after her parents became concerned that she was homosexual. Her father wanted his daughter treated to rid of the disease. Freud’s prognosis was not exactly determined based on the circumstances in which she entered the treatment and based on his belief that homosexuality was not a disease or neurotic conflict. Freud explained in his paper that the attempt the change homosexuality was a challenge because it only meant creating homosexual feelings in a patient, and not necessarily ridding of homosexual feelings.
In 1935 a mother wrote a letter to Freud asking him to help her son overcome his homosexuality. Freud wrote back:
“I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual. ... it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. ... By asking me if I can help [your son], you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases, we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies, which are present in every homosexual; in the majority of cases, it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual. The result of the treatment cannot be predicted.”
This letter became famous later on in Freud’s career.
After Sigmund’s publishing of his work, it was used to socially validate the ideology that homosexuality was a mental illness that needed to be eradicated in men and women. It was officially deemed a disease in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association.
At the time, conversion therapy was named reparative therapy and abnormal treatments were used on patients to cure them of homosexuality. This included extreme techniques like testicular implants (which involved taking the testicles of a heterosexual male and surgically implanting them into a homosexual male, in hopes of changing the male’s sexuality,) ice-pick lobotomies (a surgical incision in the frontal lobe of the brain,) electroconvulsive therapy to the head, hands, and genitals without the use of anesthesia, chemical castrations, and the exposure to pornography. Many other harmful practices were performed on homosexual men and women in conversion therapy camps. Many of these men and women were minors at the time.
Gay men were subjected to what was known as Playboy therapy, started by a psychologist named Gerald Davison. The men were shown homoerotic photos, then electrocuted on their hands or genitals. They then were shown pornographic images of women, with no electrocution following. The thought process behind this was that gay individuals would quickly associate a link between being gay with pain or negativity. This was done in hopes that they would come to favor heterosexuality.
In the 1970s, Davison renounced Playboy therapy by stating that it was a wrong and harmful practice and that homosexuality was not, in fact, a disease or mental illness. In 1976, Davison published a brutally honest article about the harmful practices being performed in conversion therapy camps.
In 1973, The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness, after LGBTQ+ organizations began stating (and proving) that being gay was not pathological or a disease.
Although homosexuality was no longer deemed as a bad thing, radical American Christians ensured that practices of conversion therapy would ensue in order to force gay individuals to conform to Christian beliefs and values. Today, many camps are forced to fly under the radar due to the fact that conversion therapy is more and more frowned upon by psychiatrists and mainstream culture. They’re typically located in rural areas, particularly in the Bible Belt, but they’re not exclusive to those areas.
Currently, conversion therapy has been outlawed in only 18 of the 50 states and two territories (The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.)
Many therapists have dealt with patients who have struggled with anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, PTSD, relationship dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, and demasculinization. Ninety five percent of current adults who have been through conversion therapy have attempted suicide.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I have often feared the thought of being admitted to a conversion therapy camp. No person should have to endure mental and physical abuse performed by priests and nuns simply because of who they love. My sexuality is not a choice, nor is it something I should be ashamed of. No person chooses to be gay or transgender, especially when practices like this currently exist, or with the hatred that some individuals hold in their hearts.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, please do not be afraid to reach out. There is someone out there who can help you and will listen to you. The national suicide hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
You are loved and you are important.
If you are interested in ending conversion therapy in the United States, please visit thetrevorproject.org and sign up today. The Trevor Project has a campaign named “50 Bills 50 States,” which is the largest project to protect LGBTQ+ youth from conversion therapy in the United States as well as many other countries. They engage in legislation, litigation, and public education to inform others of the horrors behind conversion therapy and the effects it leaves behind on LGBTQ+ youth all around the world.