Orgasmic reconditioning: A controlled study of its effects upon the sexual arousal and behavior of adult male homosexuals

This article was identified by the Behavior Therapy Task Force on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity/Expression Change Efforts (SOGIECEs) as testing discredited practices that are associated with harms, and that are inconsistent with more recent standards for working with sexual and gender minority (e.g., LGBTQ+) individuals. For more details, and for more recent information on ethical practices and LGBTQ-affirmative care, consult the link above. Four self-referred adult male homosexuals were provided with therapy to increase their level of heterosexual responsiveness. Three underwent 40 sessions of orgasmic reconditioning using both visual and fantasied stimuli, in counterbalanced treatment sequences; one underwent 19 sessions of orgasmic reconditioning with visual stimuli and 17 sessions of shock aversion therapy. Assessment included measurement of physiological and behavioral sexual arousal patterns throughout the study. Subjects reported that their sexual adjustment had improved, but objective physiological and behavioral measures of arousal were not changed. This fails to support many previous case reports of success with the technique. The aversion therapy procedure produced no change in arousal to deviant stimuli and only slight increases in arousal to heterosexual stimuli. The lack of objective data to corroborate the subject's allegations of improved condition following treatment with orgasmic reconditioning is discussed, and the implications for the use of subjective measures of improvement in therapy outcome research examined.