We usually take it for granted that the historic institutions of the western world are bastions of certainty. If they make an authoritative statement the mass media assume that anyone who disagrees is somewhere on a spectrum between a villain and a fool. This is particularly the case where scientific matters are concerned.
It may come as a shock to find that such trust is not always securely grounded. In particular, a politically correct ideology is rapidly encroaching on the western world, an ideology which is subtly reshaping the values of society as regards attitudes to sexuality. The shock lies not in the fact of reshaping, for society must always adapt or die, but in the discovery that significant areas of scientific endeavour are now influenced by ideology rather than by pure research.
O’Callghan, D and May P, 2013 Beyond Critique
How the Royal College of Psychiatrists has influenced other UK Professional Bodies:
Up until its change in position reflected in its statement on Sexual Orientation (2014), the Royal College of Psychiatrists sought to justify the narrative that homosexuality is biologically caused, that change is impossible, and that the attempt to change is harmful. Yet the very scientific studies to which it appeals do not support this narrative. (ref)
In its submission to the Church of England (2007) for example, the College claimed there is “… no substantive evidence to support the suggestion that … early childhood experiences play any role in the formation of a person’s fundamental heterosexual or homosexual orientation. It would appear that sexual orientation is biological in nature, determined by a complex interplay of genetic factors and the early uterine environment” (ie genes and hormones).
The UKCP and more importantly the PSA simply assumes the truth of this narrative and refuses to hold its opinion up to the light of science, yet threatens to discipline any of its members whose therapeutic practice is based on a ‘different opinion’.
