Joseph Nicolosi

Joseph Nicolosi
Born (1947-01-21) January 21, 1947
Occupation Psychologist

Joseph Nicolosi (born January 21, 1947) is an American clinical psychologist, founder and director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, California, and a founder and former president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).[1] Nicolosi has advocated and practiced reparative therapy, a practice that he claims can help people overcome or mitigate their homosexual desires and replace them with heterosexual ones.

Nicolosi has described his theories in Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach and three other books. Nicolosi proposes that homosexuality is often the product of a condition he describes as gender-identity deficit caused by an alienation from, and perceived rejection by, individuals of the subject's gender.[2] He holds a Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology. Nicolosi is a founding member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and was its president for some time. NARTH is a professional association that promotes the acceptance of conversion therapy, whose adherents purport successfully changing homosexuals into heterosexuals. He is an advisor to, and officer of, NARTH.[1][3]

In 2012, California passed a law that banned the provision of conversion therapy to minors, including some of Nicolosi's existing patients. Nicolosi was named as a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the law on constitutional groups[4] but the law, effectively barring Nicolosi's clinic from taking on patients under the age of 18, was subsequently upheld.

In 2015, a New Jersey judge barred Nicolosi from appearing as an expert witness in a lawsuit filed against another provider of conversion therapy, Jews Offering New Alternative for Healing (JONAH).[5] The court excluded all of JONAH's experts, including Nicolosi, because each expert "proffer[ed] the opinion that homosexuality either is a disorder or is not a normal variation of human sexuality," which contradicted "generally accepted scientific theory."[5]

See also

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 "NARTH Officers". Retrieved 2010-05-10.
  2. ↑ Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, ISBN 0-7657-0142-1
  3. ↑ "NARTH Advisors". Retrieved 2010-05-10.
  4. ↑ "Second Lawsuit Filed against Calif. Gay Therapy Ban". CBN. October 7, 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  5. 1 2 Ferguson v. JONAH, No. HUDL547312, 2015 WL 609436, at *9–10 (N.J. Super. Feb. 5, 2015).

External links

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