---
title: "Conversion therapy"
chunk: 2/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_therapy"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:31:09.241296+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) ===
The term homosexual was coined by German-speaking Hungarian writer Karl Maria Kertbeny and was in circulation by the 1880s. Into the middle of the twentieth century, competing views of homosexuality were advanced by psychoanalysis versus academic sexology. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, viewed homosexuality as a form of arrested development. Later psychoanalysts followed Sandor Rado, who argued that homosexuality was a "phobic avoidance of heterosexuality caused by inadequate early parenting". This line of thinking was popular in psychiatric models of homosexuality based on the prison population or homosexuals seeking treatment. In contrast, sexology researchers such as Alfred Kinsey argued that homosexuality was a normal variation in human development. In 1970, gay activists confronted the American Psychiatric Association, persuading the association to reconsider whether homosexuality should be listed as a disorder. The APA delisted homosexuality in 1973, which contributed to shifts in public opinion on homosexuality.
Despite their lack of scientific backing, some socially or religiously conservative activists continued to argue that if one person's sexuality could be changed, homosexuality was not a fixed class such as race. Borrowing from discredited psychoanalytic ideas about the cause of homosexuality, some of these individuals offered conversion therapy. In 2001, conversion therapy attracted attention when Robert L. Spitzer published a non-peer-reviewed study asserting that some homosexuals could change their sexual orientation. Many researchers made methodological criticisms of the study, and Spitzer later repudiated his own study.

=== Gender identity change efforts (GICE) ===
Gender Identity Change Efforts (GICE) refer to practices of healthcare providers and religious counselors with the goal of attempting to alter a person's gender identity or expression to conform to social norms. Examples include aversion therapy, cognitive restructuring, and psychoanalytic and talk therapies. Western medical-model narratives have historically favored a binary gender model and pathologizing gender diversity and non-conformity.  This aided the development and proliferation of GICE.
Early interventions were rooted in psychoanalytic hypotheses. Robert Stoller advanced the theory that gender-nonconforming behavior and expression in children assigned male at birth (AMAB) was caused by being overly close to their mother. Richard Green continued his research; his methods for altering behavior included having the father spend more time with the child and mother less, expecting both to exhibit stereotypical gender roles, and having them praise their child's masculine behaviors, and shame their feminine and gender-nonconforming ones. These interventions resulted in depression in the children and feelings of betrayal from parents that the treatments failed.
In the 1970s, UCLA psychologist Richard Green recruited Ole Ivar Lovaas to adapt the techniques of applied behavior analysis (ABA) to attempt to prevent children from becoming transsexual. Deemed the "Feminine Boy Project", the treatments used operant conditioning to reward gender-conforming behaviors, and punish gender non-conforming behaviors.

Kenneth Zucker at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health adopted Richard Green's methods, but narrowed the scope to attempting to prevent the child from identifying as transgender by modifying gender behavior and presentation to conform to the expectations of the assigned gender at birth, which he dubbed the "living in your own skin" model. His model used the same interventions as Green with the addition of psychodynamic therapy.

=== Bans on conversion therapy ===
In 2020, the United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity (IESOGI) published a Report on conversion therapy, which documented global practices on conversion therapy against LGBTQ individuals. 
In the report, the UN IESOGI called for a global ban on "conversion therapy", as an umbrella term describing various interventions practiced to "cure" people, and to "convert" them from non-heterosexual to heterosexual, and from trans or gender diverse to cisgender. The report highlighted a 2015 US court case from New Jersey, "Ferguson v JONAH'", in which a jury unanimously found the defendants guilty of fraud, claiming they were providing "services that could significantly reduce or eliminate same-sex attraction." In March of 2026, laws prohibiting conversion therapy were struck down by the US Supreme Court.

== Motivations ==
A frequent motivation for adults who pursue conversion therapy is religious beliefs that disapprove of same-sex relations, such as evangelical Christianity, Orthodox Judaism, and conservative interpretations of Islam. These adults prioritize maintaining a good relationship with their family and religious community.
Adolescents who are pressured by their families into undergoing conversion therapy also typically come from a conservative religious background. Youth from families with low socioeconomic status are also more likely to undergo conversion therapy.

== Theories and techniques ==
As societal attitudes toward homosexuality have become more accepting over time, the harshest conversion therapy methods, such as aversion therapy, have become less common. Secular conversion therapy is offered less frequently due to the demedicalization of homosexuality and bisexuality, and religious practitioners have become predominant.

=== Aversion therapy ===