A college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues
Just a head’s up to watch for the tomorrow’s God and Country Blog at US News and World Report. Yours truly will have an article about the recent APA task force report and the contention that the APA advocates that conflicted people just switch churches if they can’t work out the conflict.
Check out the week’s other guest authors and thanks to host Dan Gilgoff for the opportunity.
Yesterday, I was on WHYY out of Philadelphia for an interview with Judith Glassgold, chair of the recently released APA Task Force report. Marty Moss-Coane is the host of Radio Times, a show broadcast over NPR as well as locally on WHYY.
You can listen to the interview here. It is long (about an hour) but the long format allowed us to unpack the report and some of the clinical issues involved.
Among other points, Dr. Glassgold affirmed my understanding and analysis of the APA task force report and the value it has for people working within a sexual identity therapy framework. There is much more of interest so if you groove on this topic, this is a good interview without pressure to create sound bites.
In the category of “Old Business.”
On July 23, I asked blog readers what the phrase “new scientific research” meant.
Here is what some of you said:
New: Recently reported (not in media for more than 3 months)
Scientific: Can document measuring criteria, tested, revealing a need to do further research
Research: Primary Data
If it’s new, it’s not a review of past literature.
Data that hasn’t been reported before.
Not –
A literature review
A meta-analysis
A re-analysis of data that has been previously been reported with a different analysis.
Study with new data…Not a literature review. Not a review to undermine the own viewpoints with no diversity view.
That’s what I think too. Therefore I was surprised to see NARTH headline their recent press release for the summary paper, “What Research Shows…” as
New Scientific Research Refutes Unsubstantiated Claims Regarding Homosexuality
The problem is that there is no new scientific research in the paper. The paper itself is not new scientific research but rather a collection of prior studies.
I asked NARTH leaders about the decision to call their paper “new scientific research.” I did learn in the process that the NARTH Governing Board had reviewed the press release and title and approved it. When I pressed about why the paper was called “new scientific research,” NARTH past-president Dean Byrd then wrote to me twice say that he did not have time to answer the question.
The Associated Press has a good summary of the political landscape on healthcare reform today.
During the 1993 Clinton Health Care debates, co-ops were floated as an option. While this may seem like a compromise, such co-ops are not a panacea. I might support them if the amount of administrative costs were capped and they were not allowed to lobby legislators (think about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).
Such an option could get us closer to public health clinics where health care would be free or dramatically low in cost. Co-ops should be open to such an arrangement since such care can be coordinated well and the incentive is good care and not profit margin.
However, I maintain that unless tort reform is on the table, it matters little whether we have non-profits or insurance companies or the government. Physicians will still practice defensively and run up costs. Don’t hear me say tort reform will fix the system but without it, I doubt the current fixes will help as much.
Yesterday, Grove City got involved.
Americans for Prosperity rolled through town collecting signatures on a petition opposing more government control of health care.
I wrote about the visit at World Magazine, just up today. Actually, I wrote the article sitting in the Four Star Pizza. They’re all wireless and tasty in there.
Unpaid protester
People waiting to sign the petition
