Des DownUnder On Sundays

Editor's Note: Des is still on holiday so here are words of wisdom from our intrepid Canadian editor, Bart Vogelzang.

Reparative Therapy

By Bart Vogelzang | VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA -- Have you heard the expression, “herding cats”? How about, “pushing wet spaghetti uphill”? Obviously some haven’t, or they wouldn’t be trying such a stupid thing as reparative therapy.

Most of us know what we like, although some have managed to cloak (hide) it from ourselves. Whether it is your food choice, your likes in music, the type of sports that interests you, or your desire for certain video games, you like what you like, and dislike what you dislike. The best that anyone can really do to change things a little is to introduce you to experiences you may not have tried yet, but that’s really about it. You will quickly decide if you like the new experience or don’t, and you’ll go forward based on that decision.

Admittedly, one can be forced, by any number of brainwashing techniques, to reject, to the point of abhorrence, something that you previously found to be pleasurable. It’s not really that you now dislike it, but your brain is conditioned to associate discomfort and pain with that object, and therefore starts to reject it. Some think that this conditioning is preferable to just accepting your likes, at least for everyone else but themselves.

The trouble is, the body and brain still knows what it likes, and continues to like, but just reacts badly after that brainwashing. Worse, almost infinitely worse in my opinion, is that it creates an internal stress level that is akin to ongoing torture. It is like having a reformed smoker surrounded by smokers, especially one who didn’t quit willingly. Or maybe like placing lovely smelling foods all around a person forbidden from eating anything but tasteless odorless pap.

Silliest of all, is ignoring human reality. You may be able to condition someone to reject certain things, like a particular food, a certain game, or a particular sex, but you will never ever be able to actually make them LIKE something else. That’s where the ‘pushing wet noodles’ comes into it. You can pull the noodle away, but you cannot push it successfully. 

Maybe it is possible to have someone reject their homosexual attractions, or at least their overt actions in that regard, but, despite the occasional time when someone gay might actually find themselves emotionally attracted to someone of the opposite sex, there is no way that anyone is ever going to force such an attraction to the opposite sex. All a misguided evangelistic therapist can do is turn that victim into a tortured husk of a human being, rejecting actions that fulfill his or her own genetic needs, with nothing offered in return. And for those who say that “love of Jesus” should be enough, well, just look at how successfully that has worked for Catholic priests.