Posted: Apr 16, 2012 4:07 pm
Thomas Eshuis wrote:
I am. There seems to be no other explanation for his publishing and endorsing of such a pseudo-scientific piece of crap.
But if I'm wrong I'll apologize.
My understanding is that he ran the study, these were the results that he got, and he published them. He's one of the biggest names in psychiatry, and there is little in his history to suggest an ideological bias. In fact, he was one of the key figures in having homosexuality as a diagnosis removed from the DSM.
Wiki biography
The issue, to my mind, is that the far right cited and promoted this study to a degree far out of proportion to its, at best modest, scientific merit. To be honest, I think this "retraction" is being puffed up to a bigger degree than it warrants, as well. This was an otherwise very minor paper that only vaguely hinted at findings that were not corroborated by any more rigorous study, and within the field has had negligible influence. As I said, its importance has only been as a political tool misused by extremist social conservatives.