In a movie review of “Latter Days” for the New York Times last Friday, Dave Kehr praises the film for charting one man’s journey — with the help of a Mormon — from youthful promiscuity to “more responsible, more mature, more stable relationships.”
According to the review, however, the movie’s credibility is undermined when the adult Mormon’s mother pitches him into an electroshock-and-icebag exaggeration of exgay therapy.
I haven’t seen the movie, but this raises a question for me… Does anyone still use shock therapy as a means to cure homosexuality?
Shock therapy? Probably only by some fringe ‘psychiatrists’ and most likely used outside of Europe and North-America. Although I haven’t seen the movie yet, I don’t think such scenes are unreal among certain secluded Mormon groups.
I’ve seen the movie twice, thus far. It is a wonderful movie and very touching. The main character, Aaron (the Mormon Elder), makes a comment to Christian, his gay suitor, about the significance of accepting his own homosexuality. Aaron says that Christian doesn’t understand, but everything that has profound significance in his (Aaron) life would have to be left behind if he lives into his orientation. How many of us from conservative faith backgrounds had to undertake the profound and agonizing struggle to reconcile our orientation and our faith?
The thing that bothers me about this movie, and others the present the struggle between Christian faith (and I will include Mormonism within this category for now) and sexual orientation, is the idea that one has to jettison one’s faith to be a healthy, happy homosexual. I think too many people have bought into the Religious Right prohibitionists’ line that people cannot be gay and Christian at the same time. That is too bad!
Yes, shock therapy is still used in the US, even by some secular psychiatrists. From what I understand, there are still conditions that respond best in some people to shock therapy (honestly, I cannot site sources, but I have seen and heard several reports over the past year discussing the procedure).
Bob
It (shock therapy) is still felt to be effective in the case of depression or other mood disorders that do not respond well to other therapies. It is nothing like the old stereotypical shock therapies in most movies. I have also heard of mild electrical shock used in aversion therapy. Is that what they use in the movie, or the old stereotypical extreme shocks?
Schindler et al report numerous instances of shock treatment still being used on young gays. The ‘patients’ usually are students at conservative Christian colleges. They are given a choice (sort of) between shock ‘therapy’ and expulsion with exposure of their gayness. Vomit inducement seems to be big in these circles: give emetics and show dirty pictures. Hope that this induces a feeling of revulsion for same gender partners. Sort of laughable, and very very sad. The reports are anecdotal and very difficult to pin down. But the practice appears to be widespread among Christian counselors.
As part of my BA in Psychology I learned about ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) as a treatment for severe depression — that is the only approved use of the therapy, and it is supposed to be used only in cases where the patient is so suicidal doctors cannot wait the 2 – 3 weeks for anti-depressant medication to work. The treatment is certainly not “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” type – patients are sedated and do not suffer trauma, although there are problems with memory loss afterwards. No one knows why ECT works on severe depression, but it’s effectiveness is well proven.
The type of shock treatment used to “change” sexual orientation is NOT the ECT described. According to what I have read and heard (including an interview with a gay former Mormon on MTV who underwent the treatment rather recently – he was only 21 when interviewed), electric shock in these circumstances is applied directly to the genitals, while the patient is awake. Because the “treatment” is supposed to create an aversion to same-sex attractions, it can only be done while the patient is awake.
It was this mis-use of electric shock treatment (as well as toxic chemical aversion therapy – which forced the patient to vomit uncontrollably as a way to create aversion to same-sex attractions) that prompted the “zaps” at the 1969 and 1970 APA conventions, which the anti-gay right routinely use as “evidence” that the 1973 change in DSM was politically motivated. Gay rights advocates were trying to stop the use of what was basically torture on gay people, many of whom had been involuntarily committed to institutions simply because they are gay.
Thankfully, this type of “treatment” has long been denounced by reputable therapists, and even most NARTH members don’t agree with it.
The movie Latter Days seemed to me to try to bridge the gap between modern times (most of the movie) and what happened to the writer of the movie about 20 years ago. Although some of things in the movie are current, most of the ideas (including shock therapy) are not common in this instance.