“Homosexuality: Classification, Etiology and Treatment” by E. Mansell Pattison and
“Homosexuality: Social Psychological Consequences” by Paul Cameron in Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology edited by David G. Benner (Baker, 1985, 1,223 pp.)
by Dr. Ralph Blair
This encyclopedia is promoted as “a comprehensive treatment of psychology from a Christian point of view”, providing “representative coverage”. In part, this is true, but the facts that some of the 1,050 entries are handled with a few lines while others are given several pages and that contributors range from students to professionals make the book uneven. It can be useful for a first quick look at some topics, but busy Christians may tend to use it as their last word on topics which they should research at greater length and depth. Some of the articles (e.g., on est and voyerism) display an objectivity that should characterize any encyclopedia. Strangely, psychic healing is favorably compared with Christianity as “experientially … the same” even if “seem[ingly] problematic theologically”. Of the “antisupernatural” John Dewey, it is said: “several aspects of his psychology seem consistent with Scripture and may be helpful to Christians”. This book is not a Fundamentalist rejection of revelation found far from the Sunday Schools of Evangelicaland, and this is why its handling of homosexuality is so disappointingly disturbing.
There are 9 or 10 authors of other articles in the book whose views on homosexuality are known to differ significantly from the experience, analysis and spirit expressed by Pattison and Cameron. Some are supporters of Evangelicals Concerned. Only one other contributor (George Rekers) has been as irresponsible as Pattison and Cameron when it comes to homosexuality. He contributes the poor article on “Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood” and Pattison authors the one on “Gender Identity”. When it comes to homosexuality, none of the writers has been more aggressively vicious than Cameron. Benner’s own bias, evidenced in his choice of Cameron, Pattison and Rekers, is shown also in the fact that, in the Category Index, he lists all homosexuality under “Psychopathology”, not only in contravention of the American Psychiatric Association diagnostic and statistical classification system but also contrary to another contributor’s saying that “the classifier [of psychopathology] should be precise both from a scientific need for reliability and from an ethical imperative not to apply demeaning labels to people”. A better choice could have been to place homosexuality under “Sexuality, Marriage, and Family”, under which Benner puts everything from abortion and domestic violence to cults, incest, premarital counseling, parent training, pornography, rape, celibacy, and masturbation. In his list of the Divisions of the American Psychological Association, Benner neglects to list Division 44 (The Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian and Gay Issues) even though it had met all APA requirements for divisional status a year prior to publication of this volume.
While Pattison’s presentation of Kinsey data can be misleading, his explanation of interactive influences between orientation and behavior cannot but be misleading. He claims, for example, that “actual sexual experience significantly influences psychological orientation”. He thinks “perhaps” the majority of homosexuals are so by orientation. But he spends much of his attention on other matters such as the same-sex “generic sexual arousal” in a shower room that he says is not homosexual arousal and on “marital sexuality”, which he thinks is heterosexual arousal even when it is rejected in favor of homosexual behavior. He labels adolescent “urination contests” as “ ‘homoerotic’ activity” because of supposed “sexual arousal in association with the same gender”. To Pattison, some men fear castration by “teeth” in the vagina and so “choose” homosexuality. He says that “most normal persons … may occasionally” have “erotic responses to [their] grandfather, grandmother [or an] infant boy or girl”. His “closely related syndromes” to homosexuality include transsexualism, transvestism, and even “spike-heel shoes” (a “penis”!) worn by a man’s female partner.
His presuppostional polemic against biological factors misrepresents the scientific research evidence for an etiological confluence of both biological and environmental factors. On treatment, Pattison dismisses an APA-approved goal of “acceptance” of one’s homosexuality as mere “gay lib”. He repeats his and his wife’s erroneous conclusions about the alleged re-orientation of 8 of 10 “ex-gays” he has since granted may well all have “gone back” to homosexuality, though he admits “there are no published evaluations” of the “ex-gay” approach and that “the efficacy remains to be determined”.
Cameron’s antigay passion has not diminished since he was expelled from the American Psychological Association for unethical behavior. He is waging a worldwide war on homosexuality because, oddly, he believes that heterosexuality does not have what is needed to “compete” against homosexuality’s “better fit” as he puts it. As he claimed in a previous article, “homosexual encounter offers better sex, on the average, than heterosexuality”. A strange admission! He warns that greater acceptance of homosexuality is linked to greater acceptance of abortion, infanticide, suicide, euthanasia, bestiality and drugs. He faults gay people for having short-lived relationships while failing to see the connection between this statistic and the homophobia he himself fosters.
Historian Arnold Toynbee often said that “One of the great tragedies of the 20th century is that the Western world has repudiated Christianity on the basis of a caricature”. Just as tragically, gay people have repudiated Christianity and Christians have repudiated gay folk in the same way. Once a big expensive reference work is placed in a seminary library, it is expected to have a long shelf life. As such, this encyclopedia may serve up a quick caricature of homosexuality into the 21st century and undercut the ability of pastors and parents to meet basic needs of gay people yet unborn.