"A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality."

[denny]

Move over, Dr. Spock. Now, alongside parenting books on discipline, potty training, and sibling rivalry, there's this: "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality."

In a message that has some people getting riled and others throwing out the welcome mat, authors Joseph and Linda Ames Nicolosi argue that homosexuality is a "disorder" that parents can head off. To do that, they say parents should toughen up "girlish" boys, feminize rough-and-tumble girls, and make sure their kids stick with toys, activities, and mannerisms traditionally aligned with their gender ... They stress the importance of "extinguishing feminine behavior" in boys with "gentle and consistent disapproval."

[article, in North Jersey News]
[the book, on Amazon.com]

Update: it's worth reading the discussion in adjectivemarcus' journal as well (which is where I saw this originally)

Comments

[dryad-wombat.livejournal.com]

One of the things that infuriates me most is how, when the Psychiatric Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders FINALLY decided to stop listing "homosexuality" as a mental illness, guess which New Illness was suddenly listed in its influential pages?

Gender Identity Dysphoria!

That makes me want to *break* things!

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

My mental response to that (not whimsically, I hasten to add) was:

"Yes, but having the wrong body sounds fairly serious to me."

before realising that's not why they listed it.

[zotz]

The DSM's a funny book. Really what it documents is whatever's trendy in US clinical psychology this week. For instance, see this one, which is slightly past its sell-by date already, in spite of being new in DSM4. "Typically, an individual with DID will require many years of treatment." How very . . . profitable.

Clippity clop, clippity clop . . . I'm sorry. I'll put the hobby horse away again, shall I?