Jack Drescher in NYC is asking for UK reactions to Patrick Strudwick's experiences of posing as a patient wanting a cure for being gay. The BACP hearing seemed a farce. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/27/gay-conversion-therapy-patrick-strudwick?INTCMP=SRCH
This is Jack's email: Several points made in this article:
An unprecedented censure of a so-called conversion therapist by a professional organization.
The relatively toothless consequences of the professional body's censure.
As long as there are individuals willing to undergo these "treatments," there will be "therapists" who are willing to provide them. In this case, paid for by the UK's National Health Service.
I'd be interested in hearing from colleagues in the UK about whether this investigative reporter's assessment is correct.
--
Jack Drescher, MD
President
Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry
jackdreschermd@gmail.com
www.jackdreschermd.net
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/27/gay-conversion-therapy-patrick-strudwick?INTCMP=SRCH
Conversion therapy: she tried to make me 'pray away the gay'
Two years ago, Patrick Strudwick began challenging therapists who claimed they could change a patient's sexuality. This week he won his battle against one.
They described her as "reckless", "disrespectful", "dogmatic" and "unprofessional". They said she showed "no empathy" towards her client. Why? Psychotherapist Lesley Pilkington had tried to turn a gay person straight.
In a landmark ruling this week, Pilkington, 60, was found guilty of "treating" a patient for his homosexuality. A hearing of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy – the largest professional body for therapists – concluded that the treatment she gave constituted "professional malpractice".
The unanimous verdict came with heavy sanctions. Pilkington's accreditation to the organisation was suspended. She was ordered to complete extensive training and professional development. If she does not file a report in six to 12 months, satisfying the board that she has complied, she will have her membership fully revoked: she will be struck off.
The report concluded: "Mrs Pilkington had allowed her personal preconceived views about gay lifestyle and sexual orientation to affect her professional relationship in a way that was prejudicial."
The client Pilkington tried to cure was me. I am an out, happily gay man. I was undercover, investigating therapists who practise this so-called conversion therapy (also known as reparative therapy) – who try to "pray away the gay". I asked her to make me straight. Her attempts to do so flout the advice of every major mental-health body in Britain.
But despite the decades of abuse that gay patients have received from therapists and psychiatrists – despite the electro-convulsive therapy used until the 1980s, despite the chemical castrations, the aversion therapy (where pain is inflicted to dissuade same-sex fantasies) and despite the recent rise in fundamentalist talking therapy – no one has ever been held to account.
The details of this case, and another I am pursuing, explain why not only gay clients but mental-health patients in general do not come forward to complain. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists routinely avoid accountability – and the government is helping them do so.
My investigation began in April 2009. I heard that a conference was taking place in London for therapists and psychiatrists who wanted to learn how to convert their patients to heterosexuality. Homosexuality was removed from psychiatry's glossary of mental illnesses in 1973. How then could anyone treat something healthy? I went along to find out, posing as someone looking to be "cured". Two people agreed to treat me. The first was a psychiatrist – we'll come to him later. The second was Lesley Pilkington.
A few weeks later I was in her grand Hertfordshire home with a Dictaphone taped to my stomach. She set about trying to find the childhood "wounds" that she believes led to my homosexuality. But she found none. "There was no sexual abuse?" she pressed.
"No."
"I think there is something there . . . you've allowed things to be done to you." She then prayed: "Father, we give you permission to bring to the surface some of the things that have happened over the years." I asked who could have committed this abuse – a member of my family? "Yes, very likely," she replied.
Was homosexuality a mental illness, an addiction or an anti-religious phenomenon? "It's all of that," said Pilkington. During the sessions, she recited prayers for me to say whenever I thought about a man sexually. She gave me how-to-be-heterosexual tips such as taking up rugby, abstaining from masturbation and distancing myself from gay friends.
When the results of my investigation were published last year in the Independent, it sparked widespread outrage. Not least because Pilkington claimed that she had had referrals to "treat" gay clients from the NHS GP surgery to which she is attached. As a result of the investigation, the British Medical Association passed a motion condemning conversion therapy and calling on the NHS to investigate instances where it may have unwittingly paid for it.
Just before its publication, in January 2010, I made a formal complaint about Pilkington to the BACP. But by last autumn, little had happened. Three dates for a hearing were made and then cancelled. The BACP, which has 32,000 members, explained that they couldn't find people for the adjudication panel. Why? "The legal advice we've been given is that the panel members can't be very religious but nor can they be overtly pro-gay," said Fay Reaney from the professional conduct department. So in a complaint about racism would they therefore not allow someone on the panel who is strongly opposed to racism? "This is the advice we've been given," she replied.
A new date – 20 January – was confirmed. Four days before the hearing Pilkington gave an interview to the Sunday Telegraph, contrary to BACP guidelines that neither party speak publicly about the case. I had not named her in my original article. She then went on the radio to talk about it. In response to Pilkington's disclosures – 48 hours before the hearing was due to take place – the BACP adjourned it and issued us both with confidentiality agreements.
The signed agreements would have prevented either side from ever talking about the case. My barrister, Sarah Bourke, advised me not to sign. But I couldn't decide. I didn't want to jeopardise the case but was it worth pursuing if it could never be discussed publicly? The BACP wouldn't tell me what would happen if I refused to sign.
Meanwhile, Pilkington's representatives – the Christian Legal Centre – were making intriguing claims. On the day the hearing would have taken place, they stated that it had been postponed because one of the expert witnesses she had cited in her defence had been subject to "menacing phone calls, threats and intimidation". I was the only person named in her lawyers' statement. Although she submitted testimony from several witnesses, I never knew their names and the BACP did not call any of them.
But the Daily Mail ran a story regardless: "Trial of therapist who tried to 'cure' gay man is halted after 'expert defence witness is intimidated'," screamed the headline. Countless Christian websites repeated the claims. Hate mail poured in. Pilkington continued to give interviews and gave a talk at another conversion-therapy conference in London. With the agreements unsigned, the BACP decided to go ahead regardless. What was the point of adjourning the case for four months? The BACP would not explain.
Finally, the date was set. During the hearing, Pilkington said she still "feels there's a need" for my homosexuality to be treated. The panel asked her if it was good practice to say to someone who had stated they had not been sexually abused: "You've let things be done to you." She replied: "It didn't come across like that."
Was it, the panel asked, her belief that homosexuality was wrong, sinful or unnatural? "Oh yes," she replied. "There's no question about that . . . but there's a way out."
Pilkington revealed that she was trying to convert another gay client to heterosexuality. But that now she's "clearer" about it – she uses a contract adapted from a US-based conversion-therapy organisation. Equally startling, however, was what the panel asked me: on what basis did I assert that the BACP was publicly opposed to conversion therapy? I read aloud the letter the BACP had written to the Guardian in 2009 describing such therapy as "absurd" and stating that it "makes people with gay thoughts suffer extra pain". The panel was unaware of the letter and the BACP's position on the subject. After lunch the chair announced that they would disregard the statement as they "don't know who authorised it".
As the hearing progressed, I discovered the strain all complainants go through. I was cross-examined at length by Pilkington's barrister and by the panel. How would someone with mental-health problems cope with that? And it isn't just the emotional challenges that could deter a complainant. Without being well educated and having free legal help to interpret the BACP's jargon-dense literature and legal letters, I would have found the process incomprehensible and intimidating.
The BACP's ruling in the Pilkington case will, however, help to reassure the victims of conversion therapy. Since my first article was published dozens of people have contacted me describing their experiences. Young people whose parents had forced them into residential gay "cure" centres in the US deep south. Middle-aged men and women who wasted decades trying to be straight. Several people who had attempted suicide. One young man showed me the self-harm scars on his arms. I thought about him every day.
But although this case will serve as a precedent, it does not solve the wider problem. Even if Pilkington had been struck off completely she would still be able to carry on practising. Anyone can claim to be a therapist in Britain because there is no state regulation of the profession. "Psychotherapist" and "counsellor" are not protected titles. The BACP is a self-regulating, independent body. No one has to be a member. Thus you can't stop a bad therapist seeing clients any more than you can a fortune-teller.
The previous government had planned to regulate counsellors and psychotherapists by bringing them under the Health Professions Council, in line with other health workers, such as chiropodists, hearing aid dispensers and art therapists. This would have provided a central body offering standardised codes of conduct. But, contrary to the advice of mental-health charities such as Mind, the coalition has decided not to do this. Instead, the HPC will introduce a voluntary register for therapists.
But there is another unsettling thread to this story: that of the psychiatrist. His name is Dr Paul Miller. After meeting him at the London conference, he agreed to "treat" me for my homosexuality via Skype – as he lives in Belfast. He claims to have "resolved" his own conflicted sexuality and is now married with children.
Miller told me that homosexuality "represents a pathology". He added: "The men you were having sex with or falling in love with are just as wounded as you." He concluded that because my father is a physicist, and I was always more creative, that prevented a "gender-affirming process" which in turn led to my sexualising men.
His advice was for me to have massages with male masseurs and to stand in front of the mirror naked, touching myself, thus somehow affirming my masculinity/heterosexuality. He told me to visualise a red light when aroused: "I want you to move that red from your genitals up into your chest," he said.
I complained to the General Medical Council (the Royal College of Psychiatrists has no remit for disciplinary procedures). The RCPsych has stated: "There is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed." Yet the GMC let Miller off without even a warning – in fact, without even a hearing.
After receiving my complaint they appointed a consultant psychiatrist – whose identity was redacted – to write a report about the taped evidence I submitted. The crux of the report was that conventional therapeutic practices used by many psychotherapists have "as much or little scientific evidence" as conversion/reparative therapy. And yet reparative therapy is based on the work of self-proclaimed psychologist Elizabeth Moberly, who is not trained – her degree was in theology – and whose theories were not based on clinical research. The professional guideline document Good Psychiatric Practice, to which all psychiatrists are bound, states: "A psychiatrist must provide care that does not discriminate and is sensitive to issues of sexual orientation." The GMC report relating to my experience concludes: "I do not consider that Dr Miller's actions were inconsistent with Good Psychiatric Practice." I will appeal.
Reaction to the report has been unrestrained. The psychiatrist and author Dr Max Pemberton told me: "The GMC's decision is scandalous. Conversion therapy has been shown consistently to be dangerous and damaging. It is a disgrace that a qualified doctor is engaging in such practice, and an even greater disgrace that the GMC do not appear to feel that this warrants their attention."
A 2002 study by US clinical psychologists Ariel Shidlo and Michael Shroeder found that 55% of patients experienced psychological harm from conversion therapy, the results of which included depression and suicide attempts.
Furthermore, as Michael King, professor of psychiatry at UCL, points out: "There is an error in the GMC's logic: homosexuality is not a diagnosis. To therefore offer any kind of treatment can be damaging." He added: "Self-regulation is a problem. Professions are inward looking. People don't like to criticise each other."
But until the government steps in, self-regulation will continue to protect psychiatrists and therapists. Dissatisfied patients, meanwhile, will be deterred from complaining.
Dr Miller is still practising in his clinic in Belfast. Lesley Pilkington can carry on charging patients and praying for God to "bring to the surface" their non-existent traumas. No one can stop them.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
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Sunday, 29 May 2011
Friday, 27 May 2011
In an old book C P Cavafy
David Hockney
In an old book
Forgotten between the leaves of an old book—
almost a hundred years old—
I found an unsigned watercolor.
It must have been the work of a powerful artist.
Its title: “Representation of Love.”
“...love of extreme sensualists” would have been more to the point.
Because it became clear as you looked at the work
(it was easy to see what the artist had in mind)
that the young man in the painting
was not designated for those
who love in ways that are more or less healthy,
inside the bounds of what is clearly permissible—
with his deep chestnut eyes,
the rare beauty of his face,
the beauty of anomalous charm,
with those ideal lips that bring
sensual delight to the body loved,
those ideal limbs shaped for beds
that common morality calls shameless.
almost a hundred years old—
I found an unsigned watercolor.
It must have been the work of a powerful artist.
Its title: “Representation of Love.”
“...love of extreme sensualists” would have been more to the point.
Because it became clear as you looked at the work
(it was easy to see what the artist had in mind)
that the young man in the painting
was not designated for those
who love in ways that are more or less healthy,
inside the bounds of what is clearly permissible—
with his deep chestnut eyes,
the rare beauty of his face,
the beauty of anomalous charm,
with those ideal lips that bring
sensual delight to the body loved,
those ideal limbs shaped for beds
that common morality calls shameless.
C P Cavafy
Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard
(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)
Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)
ανάμεσα στα φύλλα του λησμονημένη,
ηύρα μιαν υδατογραφία άνευ υπογραφής.
Θάταν το έργον καλλιτέχνου λίαν δυνατού.
Έφερ’ ως τίτλον, «Παρουσίασις του Έρωτος».
Πλην μάλλον ήρμοζε, «—του έρωτος των άκρως αισθητών».
Γιατί ήταν φανερό σαν έβλεπες το έργον
(εύκολα νοιώθονταν η ιδέα του καλλιτέχνου)
που για όσους αγαπούνε κάπως υγιεινά,
μες στ’ οπωσδήποτε επιτετραμμένον μένοντες,
δεν ήταν προωρισμένος ο έφηβος
της ζωγραφιάς — με καστανά, βαθύχροα μάτια·
με του προσώπου του την εκλεκτή εμορφιά,
την εμορφιά των ανωμάλων έλξεων·
και τα ιδεώδη χείλη του που φέρνουνε
την ηδονή εις αγαπημένο σώμα·
με τα ιδεώδη μέλη του πλασμένα για κρεββάτια
που αναίσχυντα τ’ αποκαλεί η τρεχάμενη ηθική.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Hepworth in Wakefield: new gallery
The new Barbara Hepworth gallery in Wakefield has opened. Designed by David Chipperfield it looks good. Early reports are excellent. See: http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/
YouTube has a good clip at: http://youtu.be/jbB2t4MNPos
Close by is Yorkshire Sculpture Park: http://www.ysp.co.uk/whats-on/this-season
What treasures!
YouTube has a good clip at: http://youtu.be/jbB2t4MNPos
Close by is Yorkshire Sculpture Park: http://www.ysp.co.uk/whats-on/this-season
What treasures!
To treat me, you need to know who I am
Last year I was admitted to a hospital ward for elective surgery. I was accompanied my civil partner. As we waited for me to be taken to the operating theatre, I became aware of the drift of the conversation from some of the other patients. They were making hurtful comments about gay people. Those making the comments were male, white and older. As I was taken to theatre I told staff about how unhappy I was about the remarks. After surgery, I was placed in a side room for the rest of my stay in the ward.
What followed was instructive. It seemed as though front line, ward, staff had little difficulty in dealing with a patient who was gay and a partner who brought food twice daily. It was the managerial grades, above the ward management, who seemed to have some difficulties in grasping the issues and seemed out of their depths and out of their frame of reference. I was too ill to explain myself but listened to my civil partner having to explain very basic ideas, terms and what was needed by LGB patients, their partners, friends and families to senior NHS managers.
All this is a prelude to a new initiative in the health service of New York City which mandates training in the issues relating to LGBT patients. The press release can be found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/pressroom/press-release-20110525-lgbt-training.shtml
and the accompanying video can be seen here:
What followed was instructive. It seemed as though front line, ward, staff had little difficulty in dealing with a patient who was gay and a partner who brought food twice daily. It was the managerial grades, above the ward management, who seemed to have some difficulties in grasping the issues and seemed out of their depths and out of their frame of reference. I was too ill to explain myself but listened to my civil partner having to explain very basic ideas, terms and what was needed by LGB patients, their partners, friends and families to senior NHS managers.
All this is a prelude to a new initiative in the health service of New York City which mandates training in the issues relating to LGBT patients. The press release can be found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/pressroom/press-release-20110525-lgbt-training.shtml
and the accompanying video can be seen here:
My first comment is the need for a British version of this without the piano schmaltz.
Glyndebourne streams Die Meistersinger
The Guardian web site will be streaming both Wagner's Die Meistersinger and Britten's Turn of the Screw live from Glyndebourne this year. Details from G website.
Monday, 23 May 2011
From The Irish Times
Monday, May 23, 2011
Amazement at Queen’s ability to speak four words of Irish revealed the truly colonial attitude of our leaders
THE QUEEN looked out of her Range Rover and waved. And all our hands went up, a couple of dozen of them, in a forest of waving. We were so far away we didn’t think she’d see us. We were delighted.
A little pulse ran through our small crowd. It was the love that dare not speak its name, but will turn up in its anorak on a chilly May morning. Walking to Islandbridge from Inchicore was a pretty woman in her sixties, a very Dublin woman, who said her father used to bring her to Islandbridge every November. He was in the RAF during the war.
The lady bought a poppy every year, she said. The third member of our party on the short walk was a man who had come in from Clondalkin on the bus and was amazed that the bus had been allowed into the city centre at all.
We were a humble lot, and tolerant. A man with a South African accent, in a high-viz vest and baseball cap, directed us firmly behind the barriers. “I’ll just search your bag for bombs,” said a Garda sergeant.
Our crowd was tiny. Mothers with prams, grey-haired ladies in anoraks, a couple of office workers, retired men. Opposite, a similar lot were standing behind barriers on the same side of the streets as the side entrance to the War Memorial Gardens. We were outnumbered by gardaí by about 12 to one. Afterwards, some gardaí were loaded on to a double decker bus and, as it pulled away, the ladies by the entrance gave the bus their royal wave. The guards laughed.
An Irish crowd is a witty one and it is very sad that, in Dublin at least, the crowd was swept from the pavements for the duration of the royal visit. Luckily the Queen eventually managed to meet an Irish crowd in Cork. It has to be acknowledged that an effort was made by organisers to make sure ordinary people met the Queen at the various venues. And that the gardaí were both informal and extremely strict. But the truth is that even the guards felt the emptiness of the streets in the end. The comedian Maeve Higgins had the best story of the royal visit when she told John Murray of how her sister was jogging in the Phoenix Park with two friends and the guards had asked them to wave at the Queen as she drove by, because there was nobody else there to do it.
“You can’t walk down the middle of the road,” a garda said, even though there was no traffic allowed on the road back to Inchicore and the Queen had left Islandbridge at this stage.
I just wanted to look over the wall and see what the gardens looked like, now that the Queen was gone and there wasn’t a heavily armed soldier every 20 yards behind the railings. But no.
It is a cliche now to say, as a poet once did, that the Queen must think that the world smells of fresh paint. But one has to wonder what the Queen thinks of daily life in Ireland. Here is a sentence from the I rish Post ’s online report of the Croke Park visit: “They were whisked inside to one of the premium-level suites where Irish set dancers tapped out a traditional routine.” Which is all very well, but how many set dancers do you actually know?
The visit of Eilís A Dó has raised several interesting questions, but above all it demonstrated a central truth: official Ireland is fascinated with itself and never tires of hearing its own fragile story.
The Queen is a professional and, as well as taking all steps at a gallop and thereby raising the stakes for everyone over 70, she is practised at appearing to enjoy herself. It is her job.
The trick is to take this for granted, as most Irish people did. Not to nearly fall out of your standing when she managed to speak four words of a language that is foreign not only to her, but to most people outside official Ireland.
The Queen is used to speaking four words of a foreign language, as a workaday courtesy, when addressing gatherings which include previous prime ministers and senior civil servants – in other words the elite of whichever country she is in.
It is sad that our leaders are so astonished to see their pretensions taken seriously. Their gratitude for it was truly colonial.
It would be too much to say that the Irish are, even since the ending of British rule here, lions led by donkeys. But the Irish crowd, made up of ordinary people, has always been streets ahead of its leaders in its sophistication and, above all, in its confidence.
People in the Cork crowd were secure enough to wave Union Jacks for an honoured guest. It was the people at the banquets who needed reassurance: they have always been more dangerous to Ireland than its crowds.
Amazement at Queen’s ability to speak four words of Irish revealed the truly colonial attitude of our leaders
THE QUEEN looked out of her Range Rover and waved. And all our hands went up, a couple of dozen of them, in a forest of waving. We were so far away we didn’t think she’d see us. We were delighted.
A little pulse ran through our small crowd. It was the love that dare not speak its name, but will turn up in its anorak on a chilly May morning. Walking to Islandbridge from Inchicore was a pretty woman in her sixties, a very Dublin woman, who said her father used to bring her to Islandbridge every November. He was in the RAF during the war.
The lady bought a poppy every year, she said. The third member of our party on the short walk was a man who had come in from Clondalkin on the bus and was amazed that the bus had been allowed into the city centre at all.
We were a humble lot, and tolerant. A man with a South African accent, in a high-viz vest and baseball cap, directed us firmly behind the barriers. “I’ll just search your bag for bombs,” said a Garda sergeant.
Our crowd was tiny. Mothers with prams, grey-haired ladies in anoraks, a couple of office workers, retired men. Opposite, a similar lot were standing behind barriers on the same side of the streets as the side entrance to the War Memorial Gardens. We were outnumbered by gardaí by about 12 to one. Afterwards, some gardaí were loaded on to a double decker bus and, as it pulled away, the ladies by the entrance gave the bus their royal wave. The guards laughed.
An Irish crowd is a witty one and it is very sad that, in Dublin at least, the crowd was swept from the pavements for the duration of the royal visit. Luckily the Queen eventually managed to meet an Irish crowd in Cork. It has to be acknowledged that an effort was made by organisers to make sure ordinary people met the Queen at the various venues. And that the gardaí were both informal and extremely strict. But the truth is that even the guards felt the emptiness of the streets in the end. The comedian Maeve Higgins had the best story of the royal visit when she told John Murray of how her sister was jogging in the Phoenix Park with two friends and the guards had asked them to wave at the Queen as she drove by, because there was nobody else there to do it.
“You can’t walk down the middle of the road,” a garda said, even though there was no traffic allowed on the road back to Inchicore and the Queen had left Islandbridge at this stage.
I just wanted to look over the wall and see what the gardens looked like, now that the Queen was gone and there wasn’t a heavily armed soldier every 20 yards behind the railings. But no.
It is a cliche now to say, as a poet once did, that the Queen must think that the world smells of fresh paint. But one has to wonder what the Queen thinks of daily life in Ireland. Here is a sentence from the I rish Post ’s online report of the Croke Park visit: “They were whisked inside to one of the premium-level suites where Irish set dancers tapped out a traditional routine.” Which is all very well, but how many set dancers do you actually know?
The visit of Eilís A Dó has raised several interesting questions, but above all it demonstrated a central truth: official Ireland is fascinated with itself and never tires of hearing its own fragile story.
The Queen is a professional and, as well as taking all steps at a gallop and thereby raising the stakes for everyone over 70, she is practised at appearing to enjoy herself. It is her job.
The trick is to take this for granted, as most Irish people did. Not to nearly fall out of your standing when she managed to speak four words of a language that is foreign not only to her, but to most people outside official Ireland.
The Queen is used to speaking four words of a foreign language, as a workaday courtesy, when addressing gatherings which include previous prime ministers and senior civil servants – in other words the elite of whichever country she is in.
It is sad that our leaders are so astonished to see their pretensions taken seriously. Their gratitude for it was truly colonial.
It would be too much to say that the Irish are, even since the ending of British rule here, lions led by donkeys. But the Irish crowd, made up of ordinary people, has always been streets ahead of its leaders in its sophistication and, above all, in its confidence.
People in the Cork crowd were secure enough to wave Union Jacks for an honoured guest. It was the people at the banquets who needed reassurance: they have always been more dangerous to Ireland than its crowds.
Church of Scotland and gay clergy
The BBC are reporting that the Church of Scotland is once again discussing the role of gay clergy. In such reporting I assume we have to include missing words such as "openly" or "out" for them to make sense as in any church there are numbers of clergy who are gay or lesbian but are not able to be open about their sexual orientation. Here is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13492501
I assume in most Christian churches on what I have come to think of as the 40% rule that more than a third of clergy are gay and the rest are heterosexual or bisexual. This rule of thumb comes from decades of reading the scientific literature in the field, clinical experience with troubled clergy of many denominations and sexual orientations and personal knowledge of many clergy. Of course, in churches that insist on compulsory celibacy, the percentage increases.
Clergy, in my experience, are more like medical professionals, than other group and often see themselves, and are encouraged by their laity, to see themselves as ontological different from other human beings. This, for some, can come a great cost. I have come to think that where there is a very public rule of compulsory clerical celibacy for entry into the ministerial priesthood some will find it very difficult to say celibate. Once we move away from a Eurocentric position the situation can get very unclear.
Once again the Church of Scotland, with its heritage in an austere Calvinism that can make Lutheranism almost seem exotic, produces a surprise. Think of the wonderful gift to the wider world of the Iona community and the witness against the huge dumping grounds of weapons of mass destruction in the lochs of the west of Scotland. Thank God for the witness against this blasphemy by the church of John Knox and John Calvin and, in our own day, the prophet, John Bell. My belief is that churches that take both the Hebrew and Greek bibles seriously are so much better equipped to grapple with the contemporary seemingly irreconcilable issues around justice, mercy, forgiveness and compassion than those that do not see the Jewish patrimony of Christianity. Taking the Hebrew scriptures seriously provides the basic grammar for grappling with issues to do with justice and so we come back to where today's posting started - gay clergy in the Church of Scotland.
I assume in most Christian churches on what I have come to think of as the 40% rule that more than a third of clergy are gay and the rest are heterosexual or bisexual. This rule of thumb comes from decades of reading the scientific literature in the field, clinical experience with troubled clergy of many denominations and sexual orientations and personal knowledge of many clergy. Of course, in churches that insist on compulsory celibacy, the percentage increases.
Clergy, in my experience, are more like medical professionals, than other group and often see themselves, and are encouraged by their laity, to see themselves as ontological different from other human beings. This, for some, can come a great cost. I have come to think that where there is a very public rule of compulsory clerical celibacy for entry into the ministerial priesthood some will find it very difficult to say celibate. Once we move away from a Eurocentric position the situation can get very unclear.
Once again the Church of Scotland, with its heritage in an austere Calvinism that can make Lutheranism almost seem exotic, produces a surprise. Think of the wonderful gift to the wider world of the Iona community and the witness against the huge dumping grounds of weapons of mass destruction in the lochs of the west of Scotland. Thank God for the witness against this blasphemy by the church of John Knox and John Calvin and, in our own day, the prophet, John Bell. My belief is that churches that take both the Hebrew and Greek bibles seriously are so much better equipped to grapple with the contemporary seemingly irreconcilable issues around justice, mercy, forgiveness and compassion than those that do not see the Jewish patrimony of Christianity. Taking the Hebrew scriptures seriously provides the basic grammar for grappling with issues to do with justice and so we come back to where today's posting started - gay clergy in the Church of Scotland.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Scene London The Regent's Park May 2011
With permission from photographer, Antonio De Vecchi, and with thanks.
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
On books and bookmen
I am currently enjoying Professor Nicholas de Lange delivering his valedictory lecture on Tuesday 17 May 2011 given in the faculty of divinity at Cambridge. A fascinating review of the role that Cambridge has played in the development of scholarship on rabbinic and medieval Jewish literature.http://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news-and-events/special-lectures
Monday, 16 May 2011
Scene London May 2011 Antonio De Vecchi
St.Pancras Grand Champagne Bar: a sip and a chat waiting for
the Eurostar to the Continent
the Eurostar to the Continent
My favourite spot of London - Whidborne St. A quiet corner just
a few steps from St. Pancras station
a few steps from St. Pancras station
St.Pancras station in all its glory with a better light
This could be me rushing to work under the supervision of Mr
John Betjeman!
One of the unexpected pleasures of putting this blog together is how it is developing. I never imagined that friends would allow me to post their photographs. Jean Loup in Paris and Antonio in London show aspects of the two cities that reflect their personalities in what they choose to photograph. Many thanks.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Friday, 13 May 2011
LGBT curriculum for discussion
From the USA comes an interesting set of materials for use in the training of mental health professionals in work with patients who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) http://www.aglp.org/gap/
The materials are free to use and copy.
I am currently thinking about an article/book chapter on personality development in children and young people who come to define themselves, either at the time or in later life, as LGBT. There seems to be a dearth of personality development material which does justice to the lives of real people - not the parody characters that exist in the pages of psychoanalytic journals up until recently. If any blog readers have ideas on this subject it would be interesting if they could post a comment. I am especially interested in comments from blog readers who have undertaken, or are undertaking, training in counselling, psychotherapy, clinical psychology and/or psychoanalysis.
Charles Silverstein has recently written a book about a psychotherapy assessment he undertook with a gay man who could not be further away from the parody characters that used to people the pages of the psychoanalytic journals. A number of LGBT psychotherapists and other clinicians comment on the initial interview. I have reviewed the book in the next edition of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02668734.asp.
The book is available both as an e-book and in hardback.
The materials are free to use and copy.
I am currently thinking about an article/book chapter on personality development in children and young people who come to define themselves, either at the time or in later life, as LGBT. There seems to be a dearth of personality development material which does justice to the lives of real people - not the parody characters that exist in the pages of psychoanalytic journals up until recently. If any blog readers have ideas on this subject it would be interesting if they could post a comment. I am especially interested in comments from blog readers who have undertaken, or are undertaking, training in counselling, psychotherapy, clinical psychology and/or psychoanalysis.
Charles Silverstein has recently written a book about a psychotherapy assessment he undertook with a gay man who could not be further away from the parody characters that used to people the pages of the psychoanalytic journals. A number of LGBT psychotherapists and other clinicians comment on the initial interview. I have reviewed the book in the next edition of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02668734.asp.
The book is available both as an e-book and in hardback.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Firenze and Boboli
Two favourite places to eat are Firenze http://www.firenze.co.uk/ and Boboli http://www.bobolirestaurant.co.uk/ in Kibworth south of Leicester.
Antonio De Vecchi, an Italian friend based in Leicester, recently wrote the following about Firenze:
Antonio De Vecchi, an Italian friend based in Leicester, recently wrote the following about Firenze:
"For lunch we went to treat ourselves to Firenze: top class, five stars. I think the young and competent waitress at some point suspected we were “expert restaurant reviewers” in plain clothes.It is definitely one of the best Italian restaurant we have ever been in this country and we are so lucky to have it just round the corner.
The wine list alone is simply remarkable, the service is impeccable, the food is just as it should be: tasty, perfectly cooked, simple but at the same time a bit experimental.
I had deep fried pig tails with shallots, veal with roasted potatoes artichokes onions and sweetbread, pears with chocolate and raspberries.
We felt a bit spoiled...."
If Firenze is for that special meal Boboli is more everyday but still excellent. It is more family friendly but always delicious.
Sarah Poli fronts both places and her husband is in charge of the kitchens and sourcing.
*****
If Firenze is for that special meal Boboli is more everyday but still excellent. It is more family friendly but always delicious.
Sarah Poli fronts both places and her husband is in charge of the kitchens and sourcing.
*****
Friday, 6 May 2011
Red Leicester?
The City Council election results means that all but two councillors are Labour with one Conservative and one Liberal Democrat who, until recently, was a Tory before he changed horses. My concern with virtually one party councils is the lack of an effective opposition to ask the awkward questions. Democracy needs debate and argument and criticism.
Priorities: education, housing, the organisation of social services, developing an integrated transport - public and private - system, improvements in the arts and culture.
LE2 gaybourhood tittle-tattle : we almost had an out gay, black, 22 year old councillor in Jamal Jeffers. This young man should go far. He is on the lower slopes of becoming a barrister. We wish him every success and hope he gets a good pupillage in a chambers that takes him in the direction he desires. Well done. It was delightful meeting him.
Priorities: education, housing, the organisation of social services, developing an integrated transport - public and private - system, improvements in the arts and culture.
LE2 gaybourhood tittle-tattle : we almost had an out gay, black, 22 year old councillor in Jamal Jeffers. This young man should go far. He is on the lower slopes of becoming a barrister. We wish him every success and hope he gets a good pupillage in a chambers that takes him in the direction he desires. Well done. It was delightful meeting him.
so much for "Nothing ever happens in LE....."
Thursday saw two major concerts in Leicester and today, Friday, sees another. So much for the complaint that "nothing ever happens in LE.."
For those who enjoy these kinds of music there was a hard choice between The Sixteen singing Marian antiphons to the Mother of the Redeemer at Saint James the Greater and Imogen Cooper.
Readers will know of the winter season of Thursday lunchtime concerts held in the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery. Directed by Nicolas Daniel, the oboe player, these and the September long weekend of theme concerts are a delight. This year we have two extra piano recitals - last night it was Imogen Cooper and in July it is Steven Hough.
Ms Cooper played two of Schubert's late piano sonatas D 958 and D 960. The performances were both muscular and sometimes moving. The D 958 seemed to be ablaze before the audience was ready such was Ms Cooper's energy. The irritation of a untamed or unmuzzled mobile phone thew my concentration as did the noise of programme notes being turned. I did wonder if the recitalist was a little annoyed with her audience but she, and they, settled into two powerful performances.
For me, the opening theme of the D960 is very special as is the whole of the slow second movement.
Ms Cooper gave little of herself away other than her special grasp of the music. Not for her, the chatty self-disclosure of an introduction to her view of the music or anecdotes that currently pepper concert programmes for better or worse. I write as one who enjoys them especially if they make what follows more accessible to those for whom it is new or strange. After Mike Wheeler, the resident MC and writer of the excellent programme notes, has said his piece Ms Cooper sweeps on to the platform and, whoosh, we are off. The piece finishes. We applaud.We go for a drink served by Les Caves du Patron (the LE2 treasure house). Part two starts and ends. We applaud. Ms Cooper goes. Rather like a priest from an arcane sect who comes to perform the ritual, does it, then goes. Or a parody Kleinian psychoanalyst who says nothing for the first 48 minutes of a session then utters some interpretation and it is all over.
We are left in the car park trying to understand through what we have just been.
Tonight, the Coull Quartet play at the Richard Attenborough Centre.
For those who enjoy these kinds of music there was a hard choice between The Sixteen singing Marian antiphons to the Mother of the Redeemer at Saint James the Greater and Imogen Cooper.
Readers will know of the winter season of Thursday lunchtime concerts held in the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery. Directed by Nicolas Daniel, the oboe player, these and the September long weekend of theme concerts are a delight. This year we have two extra piano recitals - last night it was Imogen Cooper and in July it is Steven Hough.
Ms Cooper played two of Schubert's late piano sonatas D 958 and D 960. The performances were both muscular and sometimes moving. The D 958 seemed to be ablaze before the audience was ready such was Ms Cooper's energy. The irritation of a untamed or unmuzzled mobile phone thew my concentration as did the noise of programme notes being turned. I did wonder if the recitalist was a little annoyed with her audience but she, and they, settled into two powerful performances.
For me, the opening theme of the D960 is very special as is the whole of the slow second movement.
Ms Cooper gave little of herself away other than her special grasp of the music. Not for her, the chatty self-disclosure of an introduction to her view of the music or anecdotes that currently pepper concert programmes for better or worse. I write as one who enjoys them especially if they make what follows more accessible to those for whom it is new or strange. After Mike Wheeler, the resident MC and writer of the excellent programme notes, has said his piece Ms Cooper sweeps on to the platform and, whoosh, we are off. The piece finishes. We applaud.We go for a drink served by Les Caves du Patron (the LE2 treasure house). Part two starts and ends. We applaud. Ms Cooper goes. Rather like a priest from an arcane sect who comes to perform the ritual, does it, then goes. Or a parody Kleinian psychoanalyst who says nothing for the first 48 minutes of a session then utters some interpretation and it is all over.
We are left in the car park trying to understand through what we have just been.
Tonight, the Coull Quartet play at the Richard Attenborough Centre.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
DSM 5
Here is a link to the revision of DSM5 if you want to read and comment. http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
More on the Leicester elections
As well as being sent volumes of printed material from the candidates we have also had a number of canvassers actually call at the house.
I have already mentioned one of the Labour ward candidates and predict, though he will probably lose, we will be seeing more of him. We also liked the Conservative ward candidate who, as I reported earlier, appeared to listen.
The most enjoyable (certainly in terms of discomfort) was the LibDem canvasser. New readers need to know that as soon as the bye election was called the LD's selected a man who, briefly, held the seat after Labour MP Jim Marshall died. That man only held it until the last general election when Peter Souslby regained it for Labour. That LD man was selected when Peter Soulsby resigned to fight for the Mayorality. A couple of days later the LD man withdrew and, hastily, another man was selected to fight for the LDs.
The new LD man is a health campaigner of some standing and puts high on his agenda saving the local paediatric cardiac surgery unit from closure. I really wanted to discuss this with the LD candidate because I do think it is easy to get away with sloppy emotional campaign slogans when it really deserves something much more serious by way of thinking and analysis from politicians. Sadly, when the LD canvasser came, bravely we thought, he was unable to discuss the details of this aspect of his candidate's campaign. The candidate, we were told, had been called away to deal with a sick parent. It was a pity we were not able to engage with him directly.
THEN we raised the topic of tuition fees. The poor man gave us the LibDem canvassers' party line which it was obvious he did buy and then had the guts to say it was not his view anyway. He left after we had thanked him for taking the time to talk to us.
Overall, not a bad slew of doorstep canvassers. Brave people. So for tomorrow's voting I predict:
No to AV but by a smaller than expected majority. Reasoning: those in favour are more likely to vote than those against. Leicester South stays Labour but with a reduced majority. The city council stays Labour but with a reduced majority. LE2 Knighton ward returns with one or two tories, LD Gary Hunt loses to Labour or Tory. Mayor: Peter Souslby but only just. LD Gary Hunt comes third and runner up is
Rick Moore ("I'm independent, not political"). City Mayor choses cabinet of all the talents ie Rick Moore is given a role, as is Gary Hunt. This, sadly, is not likely to happen given the tribalism of British politics.
The results are likely to be out by Friday evening.
I have already mentioned one of the Labour ward candidates and predict, though he will probably lose, we will be seeing more of him. We also liked the Conservative ward candidate who, as I reported earlier, appeared to listen.
The most enjoyable (certainly in terms of discomfort) was the LibDem canvasser. New readers need to know that as soon as the bye election was called the LD's selected a man who, briefly, held the seat after Labour MP Jim Marshall died. That man only held it until the last general election when Peter Souslby regained it for Labour. That LD man was selected when Peter Soulsby resigned to fight for the Mayorality. A couple of days later the LD man withdrew and, hastily, another man was selected to fight for the LDs.
The new LD man is a health campaigner of some standing and puts high on his agenda saving the local paediatric cardiac surgery unit from closure. I really wanted to discuss this with the LD candidate because I do think it is easy to get away with sloppy emotional campaign slogans when it really deserves something much more serious by way of thinking and analysis from politicians. Sadly, when the LD canvasser came, bravely we thought, he was unable to discuss the details of this aspect of his candidate's campaign. The candidate, we were told, had been called away to deal with a sick parent. It was a pity we were not able to engage with him directly.
THEN we raised the topic of tuition fees. The poor man gave us the LibDem canvassers' party line which it was obvious he did buy and then had the guts to say it was not his view anyway. He left after we had thanked him for taking the time to talk to us.
Overall, not a bad slew of doorstep canvassers. Brave people. So for tomorrow's voting I predict:
No to AV but by a smaller than expected majority. Reasoning: those in favour are more likely to vote than those against. Leicester South stays Labour but with a reduced majority. The city council stays Labour but with a reduced majority. LE2 Knighton ward returns with one or two tories, LD Gary Hunt loses to Labour or Tory. Mayor: Peter Souslby but only just. LD Gary Hunt comes third and runner up is
Rick Moore ("I'm independent, not political"). City Mayor choses cabinet of all the talents ie Rick Moore is given a role, as is Gary Hunt. This, sadly, is not likely to happen given the tribalism of British politics.
The results are likely to be out by Friday evening.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Leicester elections 2011
The elections in Leicester South LE2 this week are building up to a zzzzzzz. The Mayoral campaign looks like a three horse race with 13 candidates. I predict Peter Soulsby, who resigned as MP to fight for the Mayorship, will probably win. The independent Rick Moore is good. The LibDem is well, what shall I say?
The local council elections has produced a Labour candidate - 22 year old black out gay man who will surely go far...A DMU law graduate, he is eating his dinners at Lincoln's Inn and I will not be surprised, one day, to see him in the cabinet. The Conservatives are probably going to win this ward's three seats but I hope Labour has a decent, but not too large, majority on the City Council.
AV? On balance I will vote YES or NO but my motives are so mixed. Baroness Warsi is against it, David Cameron is against it, etc.
The bases of inter-religioius dialogue
David Ford, from the Cambridge Faculty of Divinity, gave the attached lecture at the Dominican university 'The Angelicum' in Rome recently. His argument, inter alia, stresses the need to take the sacred texts of each faith group seriously. It is an impressive lecture, in my view, and worth reading.
http://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/en/resources/papers/jpii-lecture
http://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/en/resources/papers/jpii-lecture
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