Robert L. Spitzer

Robert Leopold Spitzer (born May 22, 1932 in White Plains , New York , † December 25, 2015 in Seattle , Washington ) was an American psychiatrist , professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and head of the biometrics research department at New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Since 1958 he has been researching mainly on the subject of mental disorders , published around 300 papers and was considered one of the most authoritative contemporary experts in the United States for the classification of mental disorders. As such, he was a leader in the development of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV and chaired the third edition (DSM-III) commission in 1980.

Study on homosexuality

Spitzer first made a name for himself internationally in 1973 when he countered the then common opinion in psychiatry that homosexuality was a mental disorder and played a leading role in its removal from the DSM . This opinion later prevailed, so that psychiatric meetings were exposed to protests from demonstrators from the ex-gay movement , who continued to believe in the possibility of therapy and a need for therapy. Under the impression of demonstrators who reported an allegedly effective therapy, Spitzer, at the time very skeptical of such reports, designed a study that was supposed to show whether anyone benefited from these therapies at all.

In 1999 Spitzer started a scientific study in which he wanted to examine the principle possibility of therapies to change homosexuality. In this study, 200 test persons were questioned who stated that they had changed from a homosexual to a heterosexual identity and believed in the effect of their therapy. Spitzer presented the results at the 2001 American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting, and in 2003 he published an article on the study. Based on the test subjects' reports, he came to the conclusion that changing a homosexual orientation was possible for a few highly motivated individuals, and he attested that over half of the participants "functioned well as a heterosexual". A major problem in creating the study was that it took a long time to find enough test subjects.

Critics of the study note that the self-statements of the test persons were accepted uncritically, the selection process of the test persons should be viewed critically and that the sample was not representative. Spitzer himself admitted that the results of his study only apply to a very small, selected group of religiously highly motivated people.

Representatives of the ex-gay movement still see the study as important scientific evidence and use it to support their claim that therapy can change homosexual orientation. Spitzer himself said in an interview that the few people who matched the search grid of his study had clearly benefited from the therapy, and that it was "completely absurd and ridiculous" to claim that such therapies are not ethical.

Critics of the ex-gay movement note, however, that the meaningfulness of the study is often interpreted beyond its actual statements. Spitzer himself disapproved of such extensive interpretations of his study in the Washington Post . He said, “ What they don't mention is that change is pretty rare ” (German : “ What they don't mention is that change is very rare”), and describes the idea that people would be heterosexual by nature and that it is one Options for or against homosexuality are "completely absurd". In 2007 he said in the New York Times , more specifically: “ Although I suspect change occurs, I suspect it's very rare. Is it 1 percent, 2 percent? I don't think it's 10 percent. "(German:" Although I think it is possible that change will take place, I suspect that it is very rare. Is it 1 percent, 2 percent? I don't think it's 10 percent. ")

In April 2012, Spitzer withdrew his study and, in retrospect, admitted that the criticism expressed about it was largely correct:

"The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more."

"The results can be seen as evidence of what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy have to say about it, but nothing more."

He regretted what he now saw as misguided interpretations of the reports of his study participants. He had doubts about his interpretation of the study (“second thoughts about his study”) and was convinced that the criticism in the Archives of Sexual Behavior of 2003 was justified and that its conclusions, based on the data, were closer to the truth than his conclusions at the time. Spitzer included an apology in his reasoning:

"I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some 'highly motivated' individuals"

"I apologize to all homosexual people who have wasted their time and energy on some form of reparative therapy because they believed I had proven [this] to be effective on some 'highly motivated people'."

Publications

Books (excerpt)

• Critical Issues in Psychiatric Diagnosis (with Donald F. Klein). Raven 1978, ISBN 0-89004-213-6
• Dsm 111 Casebook , American Psychiatric Publications 1981, ISBN 0-89042-051-3
• Treatment of Mental Disorders (with James W. Jefferson). Oxford University Press 1982, ISBN 0-19-503107-5
• Psychopathology, a Case Book (with Janet BW Williams and Andrew E. Skodol). McGraw-Hill 1983, ISBN 0-07-060350-2
• DSM-111 Case Book: Casebook to 3r.e (Diagnostic) . Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-521-31530-1
• APA: Desk Reference to DSM III R: Desk Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria of 3r.e (Diagnostic) . Cambridge University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-521-34693-2
• An Annotated Bibliography of Dsm III . 1987, ISBN 0-88048-257-5
• Scid-P . 1990, ISBN 0-88048-411-X
• Dsm-IV Casebook: A Learning Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . 1994, ISBN 0-88048-675-9
• Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) . 1997, ISBN 0-88048-931-6
• International Perspectives on Dms-Iii, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . American Psychiatric Association 1998, ISBN 0-88048-017-3
• Dsm-IV-Tr Casebook: A Learning Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . American Psychiatric Association 2002, ISBN 1-58562-058-0
• Treatment Companion to the Dsm-IV-Tr Casebook . American Psychiatric Association 2004, ISBN 1-58562-139-0
• Dsm-IV-Tr Casebook, Volume 2 . American Psychiatric Association 2006, ISBN 1-58562-219-2

Publications on the subject of homosexuality

• Robert J. Stoller, Judd Marmor , Irving Bieber, Ronald Gold, Charles W. Socarides, Richard Green , Robert L. Spitzer: A Symposium: Should Homosexuality be in the APA Nomenclature? In: American Journal of Psychiatry. Vol. 130, No. 11, November 1973, pp. 1207-1216.
• 200 Subjects Who Claim to Have Changed Their Sexual Orientation from Homosexual to Heterosexual - Presentation at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Convention . New Orleans, May 9, 2001 - Original (en) , translation (de) by OJC .
• Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation? 200 Participants Reporting a Change from Homosexual to Heterosexual Orientation. In: Archives of Sexual Behavior . Volume 32, No. 5, October 2003, pp. 403-417.

Web links

• Literature by and about Robert L. Spitzer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Alix Spiegel: The Dictionary of Disorder - How one man revolutionized psychiatry . In: The New Yorker , December 27, 2004
• Benedict Carey: Leading Psychiatrist Apologizes for Study Supporting Gay 'Cure' . In: The New York Times (online edition), May 18, 2012.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Robert Spitzer, psychiatrist of transformative influence, dies at 83
2. ^ RL Spitzer, J. Endicott, E. Robins: Clinical criteria for psychiatric diagnosis and DSM-III . In: American Journal of Psychiatry , 1975, 132, pp. 1187-1192, abstract
3. ↑ ^{a b} Christl Ruth Vonholdt: Interview with Robert L. Spitzer: Homosexuality and the real chance for change. In: Bulletin of the OJC. 1/2001, p. 27.
4. ↑ Valeria Hinck: How omniscient is science in the name of the Almighty? ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Zwischenraum.net, 2003. 
5. ↑ Sandra G. Boodman: vowing to Set the World Straight . In: The Washington Post, August 16, 2005, p. HE01.
6. ↑ Michael Lou: Some Tormented by Homosexuality Look to a Controversial Therapy . In: The New York Times. dated February 12, 2007.
7. ^ Robert L. Spitzer: Spitzer Reassesses His 2003 Study of Reparative Therapy of Homosexuality . In: Archives of Sexual Behavior . tape 41 , no. 4 , August 2012, p. 757 , doi : 10.1023 / A: 1025647527010 .
8. ↑ Gabriel Arana: My So-Called Ex-Gay Life. A deep look at the fringe movement that just lost its only shred of scientific support. In: The American Prospect. April 11, 2012, p. 3 , accessed April 14, 2012 (English).  
9. ^ Warren Throckmorton: Robert Spitzer Retracts 2001 Ex-gay Study. In: Warren Throckmorton's blog. April 11, 2012, accessed on April 14, 2012 (English): “Knowing this article was coming, I talked last evening with Bob and asked him what he would like to do about his study. He confirmed to me that he has regret for what he now considers to be errant interpretations of the reports of his study participants. He told me that he had "second thoughts about his study" and he now believes "his conclusions don't hold water." He added that he now believes that the criticisms of the study expressed in the 2003 Archives of Sexual Behavior issue are "more true to the data" than his conclusions were. "  
10. ↑ medicaldaily.com One of the most prominent faces of modern day psychiatry, Robert Spitzer, said sorry to gay community and to anybody who wasted their time undergoing these therapies only because he said that “they'd work”