The return of the Clinical Psychologist.
Just when I thought that this clinical psychologist guy had disappeared from the Bulgarian media, he popped up on TV again.
The occasion was an old folklore holiday originally dedicated to male children that was somehow later reinterpreted (mockingly, and not in a good way) as the day of male homosexuals, or into a general Homosexuality Day or something. There are some people who view it as Homosexuality Day in full seriousness, as an actual holiday that could be celebrated or just peacefully tolerated, but still... there are all kinds of uneasiness about it.
So, on 2 February this year, our absolutely real university-graduated clinical psychologist (FSM help us!) Petar Valkov gave an interview on a not very mainstream, but still nationally available TV on the subject of same-sex marriages.
Here is a video of the interview for those who understand Bulgarian:
It was 18 or 19 minutes of... as bgoberon put it, "NARTH Redux," from him, and the hostess being very helpful to him. I translated as much of it as I had the patience to, and it wasn't very easy because neither of them was very coherent in Bulgarian. Here it is, for your "enjoyment":
Excerpt 1 (starts at 03:40):
Hostess: It is on the agenda in more and more countries to discuss whether marriages between same-sex couples should be acceptable. In some countries, that is allowed and such [couples] are already raising children. Is this an act of tolerance and to what extent can such a different family raise a normal child, we will ask the psychologist Petar Valkov. Hello and welcome in our studio again.
{small talk}
Hostess: Today we'll talk about marriages between people of the same sex and whether they should raise children, but let’s first start at the beginning, so let me ask you as a specialist how psychology views homosexuality - as something normal, a right of choice for every person, or as some personality problem?
P. V.: Homosexuality is a right of choice - in the end everyone decides whether to indulge in this behaviour or not. It is a learned behaviour, which is formed as a result of upbringing, as a result of some biological and social factors, but the most important factor according to the psychologists is the inability of the child to identify with the parent of the same sex. So for example, boys, if they cannot identify with the father in the family, if he is missing, either physically or emotionally, it is more likely that he will become homosexual. But in the end the person decides whether to be like that or not.
Hostess: Yes, but very often, there are such widespread claims that this is actually innate and it sooner or later manifests itself and you can’t escape from it. Do you agree with this or not?
P. V.: Yes, there are indeed such claims. For now the scientists have not found the homosexual gene that would be responsible, that would determine this behaviour. There are factors that predispose the child to grow up a homosexual, but there is a difference between determination and predisposition, i.e. a person may be predisposed to this type of behaviour, but never decide to practice it, but conversely, to enhance, say, the masculine in himself, if he is male, through various training, be it even by turning to a psychotherapist for help - and indeed in most cases, this tendency towards homosexuality is treated successfully.
Hostess: That’s why I asked at the beginning whether according to the psychologists homosexuality is a problem, or you are just different from other people, and whether you need treatment.
P. V.: It has been taught and is still being taught that homosexuality is ... falls into ... it is deviant behaviour, of the group of paraphilias, i.e. the paradoxically directed sexuality, not towards the opposite sex, as nature itself has taught him, but towards another object.
Hostess: So this is a problem and ...
P. V. This is a problem.
Hostess: ... according to psychologists, it should be treated.
P. V.: Yes.
Hostess: Of course, if the person, I suppose, is willing.
P. V.: Of course, yes, the statistics show that up to 60-80% of the homosexuals recover completely, except in the cases when they do not want to heal.
Hostess: How do you personally as a man view people who have a different sexuality?
P. V.: I've had [such] colleagues at the university, and in social terms, I am tolerant: I have no problems working with them, I can be friends with them; but in intellectual terms we disagree - after all my views as a psychologist and as a Christian by conviction - I see that this is a behaviour that has negative consequences for the individual himself, for the whole society, so I disagree intellectually, but socially I accept them and I'm tolerant to them.
Hostess: You said there are consequences for the whole society - do actually homosexuals harm us and how - the whole society, not some particular person or group?
P. V.: What will happen if the homosexuals prevail in society? A whole future generation will suffer and these are mostly the children, who will suffer in an emotional, in a psychological aspect, who will grow only between two adults of the same sex, the child will be deprived of seeing a correct model of relationship between a man and a woman. Also, homosexuality is rather selfish as a whole, it is aimed at meeting their needs, while... and this is related to same-sex marriages - they are aimed at satisfying their needs and not the needs of society. For example, for many generations children have grown up in a family between man and woman and the future generation was formed in that fortress, and while heterosexual families are open towards society, for the benefit of society, so that people would reproduce, create progeny, while the homosexual, same-sex marriages, they cannot create progeny, they have to take from hetero...
Hostess: But some of them have the desire, but don’t have the chance because of legal restrictions or because of other ... - in the sense that a homosexual family could practically be raising a child by adoption or by a donor, and science has already found ways. We'll talk, however, marriage and raising children in a while, that is a very serious and broad topic, and before that I only want us to discuss a couple of other questions. In your opinion, is there specifically in Bulgaria any discrimination against people with different sexuality and can it be felt visibly?
P. V.: Unfortunately, there is...
Hostess: I think so myself.
P. V.: ... and not only in Bulgaria, but also in many other countries. We call upon the public to be socially tolerant towards these people, to accept them, to love them as their neighbour, and at the same time to be intellectually intolerant of their behaviour like a good father - he condemns the child’s misbehaviour, but the child is still his child - he accepts him, he teaches him, he nurtures him, he loves him. In the same way, people should distinguish social tolerance from intellectual tolerance.
Excerpt 2:
Hostess: And now let’s talk about marriages. Are you for or against marriages between people of the same sex?
P. V.: I am for what is best for the child. The child needs mommy and daddy, it needs a real father and mother, and not people who play their roles. In same-sex marriages we have two women or two men who play the role of ... one of the mother, the other of the father, but the child needs the real father and mother, so if we are looking for the best ...
Hostess: OK, what if they divide their roles, so that the one plays a more masculine role and the other the feminine, can a similar pattern be achieved as in the real family between a man and a woman?
P. V.: What happens is theater. It is theater, we play roles, but real life shows otherwise - real life shows that if you deprive the child or the father or the mother, that child will suffer - in a physical aspect, in an emotional, in a psychological aspect.
Hostess: OK, I agree, but look now, today a very, very high percentage of children grow up in incomplete families with only one parent - usually this is only the mother (of course, there is the opposite case too), so they still lack ... lack the man in the family, as it is for example with two mothers in a same-sex marriage. Isn’t it the same model when you have only one parent, and when you have two parents of the same sex? Is there any similarity?
P. V.: Unfortunately, you are right that most - not most, but a large part of Bulgarian marriages - end in divorce and the children suffer most from this because afterwards they grow with only the one parent.
Hostess: Yes, there are a lot of single mothers too.
P. V.: Yes, but this is not the same scenario because if we take an example, there are many car accidents on the roads. But does this mean that we must remove all traffic rules so that the cars would run chaotically, or the other way round - to construct traffic in such a way that we would create extra accidents. It is the same with family - same-sex family, it is modeled by its very nature to deprive the child of one sex, either the father or mother.
Hostess: Well, certainly this sooner or later creates some problems for the children, if they live in such a marriage, but isn’t it too cruel for those people who have a different sexuality to never have the chance to raise children and leave some progeny after them? Isn’t this very cruel?
P. V.: Society has already decided that in some cases children should not be given for adoption. In the case of an inveterate criminal. In the cases of people who are mentally ill, who...
Hostess: Unhealthy, yes ...
P. V.: …if you give them a child for adoption, you put that child deliberately in an extremely risky situation.
In the end, his "statistics" were that "homosexual males suffer from depression 3 times more often than heterosexual males, and the women are 4 times more vulnerable to various neurotic disorders," that "the average duration of homosexual marriages is a year and a half, and the partners have 8 other relationships in the meantime" (sounds familiar?), that "33 to 57% of the children of lesbian mothers adopt their mothers' sexual identity" - that's what he meant by " extremely risky situation" for children, apart from the "every child needs a mommy and a daddy" argument.
When some viewer lady called on the phone to ask where he took his statistics from (and laugh at him in the process), guess what he replied? Yes, you guessed it - NARTH. Do I need to say more? *headdesk*
Now let's see what my gay-activist friend does with his "right of reply" on 16 February. I have no doubt that he can easily refute the guy, but I don't know how much of the harm our "psychologist" has done to Bulgarian gay teenagers and their parents can be undone.
The occasion was an old folklore holiday originally dedicated to male children that was somehow later reinterpreted (mockingly, and not in a good way) as the day of male homosexuals, or into a general Homosexuality Day or something. There are some people who view it as Homosexuality Day in full seriousness, as an actual holiday that could be celebrated or just peacefully tolerated, but still... there are all kinds of uneasiness about it.
So, on 2 February this year, our absolutely real university-graduated clinical psychologist (FSM help us!) Petar Valkov gave an interview on a not very mainstream, but still nationally available TV on the subject of same-sex marriages.
Here is a video of the interview for those who understand Bulgarian:
Click to viewIt was 18 or 19 minutes of... as bgoberon put it, "NARTH Redux," from him, and the hostess being very helpful to him. I translated as much of it as I had the patience to, and it wasn't very easy because neither of them was very coherent in Bulgarian. Here it is, for your "enjoyment":
Excerpt 1 (starts at 03:40):
Hostess: It is on the agenda in more and more countries to discuss whether marriages between same-sex couples should be acceptable. In some countries, that is allowed and such [couples] are already raising children. Is this an act of tolerance and to what extent can such a different family raise a normal child, we will ask the psychologist Petar Valkov. Hello and welcome in our studio again.
{small talk}
Hostess: Today we'll talk about marriages between people of the same sex and whether they should raise children, but let’s first start at the beginning, so let me ask you as a specialist how psychology views homosexuality - as something normal, a right of choice for every person, or as some personality problem?
P. V.: Homosexuality is a right of choice - in the end everyone decides whether to indulge in this behaviour or not. It is a learned behaviour, which is formed as a result of upbringing, as a result of some biological and social factors, but the most important factor according to the psychologists is the inability of the child to identify with the parent of the same sex. So for example, boys, if they cannot identify with the father in the family, if he is missing, either physically or emotionally, it is more likely that he will become homosexual. But in the end the person decides whether to be like that or not.
Hostess: Yes, but very often, there are such widespread claims that this is actually innate and it sooner or later manifests itself and you can’t escape from it. Do you agree with this or not?
P. V.: Yes, there are indeed such claims. For now the scientists have not found the homosexual gene that would be responsible, that would determine this behaviour. There are factors that predispose the child to grow up a homosexual, but there is a difference between determination and predisposition, i.e. a person may be predisposed to this type of behaviour, but never decide to practice it, but conversely, to enhance, say, the masculine in himself, if he is male, through various training, be it even by turning to a psychotherapist for help - and indeed in most cases, this tendency towards homosexuality is treated successfully.
Hostess: That’s why I asked at the beginning whether according to the psychologists homosexuality is a problem, or you are just different from other people, and whether you need treatment.
P. V.: It has been taught and is still being taught that homosexuality is ... falls into ... it is deviant behaviour, of the group of paraphilias, i.e. the paradoxically directed sexuality, not towards the opposite sex, as nature itself has taught him, but towards another object.
Hostess: So this is a problem and ...
P. V. This is a problem.
Hostess: ... according to psychologists, it should be treated.
P. V.: Yes.
Hostess: Of course, if the person, I suppose, is willing.
P. V.: Of course, yes, the statistics show that up to 60-80% of the homosexuals recover completely, except in the cases when they do not want to heal.
Hostess: How do you personally as a man view people who have a different sexuality?
P. V.: I've had [such] colleagues at the university, and in social terms, I am tolerant: I have no problems working with them, I can be friends with them; but in intellectual terms we disagree - after all my views as a psychologist and as a Christian by conviction - I see that this is a behaviour that has negative consequences for the individual himself, for the whole society, so I disagree intellectually, but socially I accept them and I'm tolerant to them.
Hostess: You said there are consequences for the whole society - do actually homosexuals harm us and how - the whole society, not some particular person or group?
P. V.: What will happen if the homosexuals prevail in society? A whole future generation will suffer and these are mostly the children, who will suffer in an emotional, in a psychological aspect, who will grow only between two adults of the same sex, the child will be deprived of seeing a correct model of relationship between a man and a woman. Also, homosexuality is rather selfish as a whole, it is aimed at meeting their needs, while... and this is related to same-sex marriages - they are aimed at satisfying their needs and not the needs of society. For example, for many generations children have grown up in a family between man and woman and the future generation was formed in that fortress, and while heterosexual families are open towards society, for the benefit of society, so that people would reproduce, create progeny, while the homosexual, same-sex marriages, they cannot create progeny, they have to take from hetero...
Hostess: But some of them have the desire, but don’t have the chance because of legal restrictions or because of other ... - in the sense that a homosexual family could practically be raising a child by adoption or by a donor, and science has already found ways. We'll talk, however, marriage and raising children in a while, that is a very serious and broad topic, and before that I only want us to discuss a couple of other questions. In your opinion, is there specifically in Bulgaria any discrimination against people with different sexuality and can it be felt visibly?
P. V.: Unfortunately, there is...
Hostess: I think so myself.
P. V.: ... and not only in Bulgaria, but also in many other countries. We call upon the public to be socially tolerant towards these people, to accept them, to love them as their neighbour, and at the same time to be intellectually intolerant of their behaviour like a good father - he condemns the child’s misbehaviour, but the child is still his child - he accepts him, he teaches him, he nurtures him, he loves him. In the same way, people should distinguish social tolerance from intellectual tolerance.
Excerpt 2:
Hostess: And now let’s talk about marriages. Are you for or against marriages between people of the same sex?
P. V.: I am for what is best for the child. The child needs mommy and daddy, it needs a real father and mother, and not people who play their roles. In same-sex marriages we have two women or two men who play the role of ... one of the mother, the other of the father, but the child needs the real father and mother, so if we are looking for the best ...
Hostess: OK, what if they divide their roles, so that the one plays a more masculine role and the other the feminine, can a similar pattern be achieved as in the real family between a man and a woman?
P. V.: What happens is theater. It is theater, we play roles, but real life shows otherwise - real life shows that if you deprive the child or the father or the mother, that child will suffer - in a physical aspect, in an emotional, in a psychological aspect.
Hostess: OK, I agree, but look now, today a very, very high percentage of children grow up in incomplete families with only one parent - usually this is only the mother (of course, there is the opposite case too), so they still lack ... lack the man in the family, as it is for example with two mothers in a same-sex marriage. Isn’t it the same model when you have only one parent, and when you have two parents of the same sex? Is there any similarity?
P. V.: Unfortunately, you are right that most - not most, but a large part of Bulgarian marriages - end in divorce and the children suffer most from this because afterwards they grow with only the one parent.
Hostess: Yes, there are a lot of single mothers too.
P. V.: Yes, but this is not the same scenario because if we take an example, there are many car accidents on the roads. But does this mean that we must remove all traffic rules so that the cars would run chaotically, or the other way round - to construct traffic in such a way that we would create extra accidents. It is the same with family - same-sex family, it is modeled by its very nature to deprive the child of one sex, either the father or mother.
Hostess: Well, certainly this sooner or later creates some problems for the children, if they live in such a marriage, but isn’t it too cruel for those people who have a different sexuality to never have the chance to raise children and leave some progeny after them? Isn’t this very cruel?
P. V.: Society has already decided that in some cases children should not be given for adoption. In the case of an inveterate criminal. In the cases of people who are mentally ill, who...
Hostess: Unhealthy, yes ...
P. V.: …if you give them a child for adoption, you put that child deliberately in an extremely risky situation.
In the end, his "statistics" were that "homosexual males suffer from depression 3 times more often than heterosexual males, and the women are 4 times more vulnerable to various neurotic disorders," that "the average duration of homosexual marriages is a year and a half, and the partners have 8 other relationships in the meantime" (sounds familiar?), that "33 to 57% of the children of lesbian mothers adopt their mothers' sexual identity" - that's what he meant by " extremely risky situation" for children, apart from the "every child needs a mommy and a daddy" argument.
When some viewer lady called on the phone to ask where he took his statistics from (and laugh at him in the process), guess what he replied? Yes, you guessed it - NARTH. Do I need to say more? *headdesk*
Now let's see what my gay-activist friend does with his "right of reply" on 16 February. I have no doubt that he can easily refute the guy, but I don't know how much of the harm our "psychologist" has done to Bulgarian gay teenagers and their parents can be undone.