Ethics Of SOCE Therapy

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Before 1973, homosexuality was treated as a mental disorder, a developmental adaptation, or a disease by mental health professionals. Various forms of sexual orientation change efforts(SOCE) therapy or conversion therapy, including "electric shocks," would be used to treat or cure the disorder. However, in 1973, homosexuality was declassified as a disease by the American Psychiatric Association and removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(Vider). Nonetheless, although homosexuality isn 't considered a disease anymore, the treatment, SOCE therapy, is still in full effect today.Now this is a perfectly fine fact for consenting adults who wish to engage in unnecessary psychoanalytic treatment, yet should a child …show more content…
It outright violates the American Psychological Association 's "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct" and the American Counseling Association 's (ACA) "2014 ACA Code of Ethics." One of the first principles of the APA code, the ACA code also has a similar clause, is that professionals should "take care to do no harm" (American Psychological Association). However by practicing SOCE therapy and by telling a patient that their sexual orientation is wrong or a disorder, a psychologist or mental health professional is psychologically harming that patient and reinforcing the harm already done by society and maybe family. Furthermore, professionals who practice conversion therapy are also violating the principle from the APA code that their work be based on "established scientific and professional knowledge of their discipline"(American Psychological Association). By ignoring the fact that homosexuality is no longer considered a disease or a developmental adaptation and continuing to ignore the numerous rejections of SOCE therapy by professional health organizations, the professional is refusing to practice under the "knowledge of their discipline" and therefore violating ethical code (American Psychological Association). `The professional is also violating the principle present in the ACA code that patient counseling must be "based on rigorous research methodologies"(2014 ACA). SOCE therapy has in no way been rigorously researched, and it has been said by the APA that SOCE therapy does not have enough research to justify its practice (American Psychological Association). For those reasons, the practice of SOCE therapy is thereby unethical and shouldn 't be practiced on adults or minors

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