Correction of Homosexual Desire in a Male Adolescent. A Case from Clinical Practice

The article describes a clinical case with a 17-year-old male patient, who presented complaints about presence of his homosexual desire. He believed that his sexual orientation was pathology and existing statements about normality of homosexuality were political propaganda. He wanted to get rid of homosexuality, marry over time and have children. During an active inquiry he informed that the proportion of the homosexual component of his libido in its total structure was 90–95%, that of the heterosexual one being 5–10%. Though during his active inquiry the patient informed about presence of a minimally expressed heterosexual component, our comprehensive analysis of his psychosexual development, sexual behavior manifestations and erotic dreams did not reveal any presence of the heterosexual component. Nevertheless, the latter might be present because from the very beginning the patient felt a slightly expressed sexual desire during heterosexual masturbation. The following correction was made: (1) cognitive influences targeted at strengthening of the patient’s set that it is normal to be heterosexual as opposed to homosexual; (2) aesthetic-erotic correction (viewing of beautiful women [naked and non-naked] using video materials for formation of the woman ideal); (3) hypnosuggestive correction of the sexual desire orientation with inclusion of the cognitive and behavioral (aversive) components; (4) prohibition of homosexually oriented masturbation and change over to heterosexually oriented one (sexual behavior training targeted at change of orientation of his sexual desire). Complete normalization of the patient’s health took place after 10 sessions of hypnosuggestive correction (programming, modelling) and retraining masturbation. This clinical observation once again demonstrates the possible effectiveness of conversion therapy with absence of any complications. Here we should emphasize that such therapy can be given only on the voluntary basis