For some, not for all?
I am familiar with some of the stuff that has been published online and through Ignatius Press.
There are organizations like NARTH and Courage.
It's been a while since I've read the models presented in those books--I was thinking about the lack of affection from a father and the lack of security in one's self-image, coupled with the flexibility of human desire (in the will), and when it is subverted by emotional needs. Add to this a feedback loop (the use of pleasure)--self-abuse with pornography--would it not be possible to reinforce certain desires as a result? And if one is not clear on the distinction between love and affection and sex, could not one project a same-sex attraction back into memories of childhood? A desire for affection from others as a part of friendship is rather normal--it isn't the same as a desire for sex, though some think that the use of sex as a sign of affection justifies any sort of sex.
So one's own psychological need for affection, coupled with sexual appetite--could this not lead to same-sex attraction and temptations?
Because of the feedback loop, isn't it possible that anything can turn human beings on, with the right sort of stimulus-pleasure-reinforcement loop? What then of the promptings ab malo?
Is there a similar genesis in some women? New fact sheet.
I have read that babies who are not touched will become depressed and may even die. Human beings need to be touched as a part of their normal psychological development--and it seems to me that the sense of touch really is the most basic in communicating affection and perceiving it. The senses are tied to the development of psychic life and emotional well-being, and we should not be surprised that as animals, things can go haywire during emotional development, subverting reason, as it were, later in life.
In many cultures where the ideal for males is not to express themselves through their body may still be able to compensate through fathers who communicate affection through their words. But it is only one step away from the father who does not communicate his affection at all.
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi on Catholic Answers, August 25, 2008--mp3, Real.
I caught the last 10 minutes on Monday; Dr. Nicolosi talked about displaced affection.
