joe-nicolosi.jpgIn an interview with self-proclaimed “global voice of orthodox Anglicanism” VirtueOnline, reparative therapist Dr Joseph Nicolosi made some of his boldest claims yet.

The former President of NARTH, who told a London ex-gay conference last weekend that 75 percent of his clients were “cured” of their homosexuality, said the following:

[The] fact remains that if you traumatize a child in a particular way you will create a homosexual condition. If you do not traumatize a child, he will be heterosexual. If you do not traumatize a child in a particular way, he will be heterosexual. The nature of that trauma is an early attachment break during the bonding phase with the father.

Frankly, this kind of dogmatic statement is a gift to Nicolosi’s opponents: If you do x, y will happen; if you do not do x, z will happen. It is a perfect falsifiable statement; in other words, the only thing you would need to do to prove Nicolosi wrong is to find one homosexual who was not traumatized by an “early attachment break” with his father, or find one heterosexual who was.

In the interview, his 75-percent success rate is toned down to a more modest two thirds, some becoming completely heterosexual in a matter of months.

Beginning to wonder about Nicolosi’s judgment? Wonder no more. When asked about Reverend Ted Haggard’s claim to be completely cured of homosexuality, Nicolosi responded thus:

If he has beaten it in four months, he should write a book about how he did it. It would be an instant bestseller. I would buy a copy.

I don’t doubt it – clearly Nicolosi expects his audience to buy just about anything.

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