Jack Drescher

Jack Drescher (born 1951) is an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst known for his work on sexual orientation and gender identity.[1]

Education and affiliations

Drescher earned his B.A. in Biology from Brooklyn College in 1972 and his M.D. from University of Michigan Medical School in 1980. He completed his internship in psychiatry at St. Vincent’s Hospital & Medical Center and his residency at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Drescher trained in Psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute where he is a Training and Supervising Analyst. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at New York University and is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College.[2]

Drescher is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, the American College of Psychiatrists and the New York Academy of Medicine. He is an elected member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and the International Academy of Sex Research, and he is President of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.

Ex-gays and conversion therapy

Drescher is a critic of the ex-gay movement and conversion therapy, calling it "questionable in its efficacy" and citing potential harms of therapy to suppress or change sexual orientation.[3] In addition to writing about the ethical concerns,[2] Drescher has likened attempts to suggest there is a professional debate about this to creationism: "You create the impression to the public as if there was a debate in the profession, which there is not."[1] Drescher was one those who spoke out after Robert Spitzer published his findings that some gay people can alter their orientation.[4]

Gender identity

Drescher is a member of the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Workgroup on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. He is also a member of the World Health Organization Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health which will address sex and gender diagnoses in WHO's forthcoming revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).

Selected publications

References

External links

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