I received this response from Wayne Besen:
Thanks for writing. My book makes no claims on constellation work, except
the way it is used by Mr. Cohen. If Bert and others in the Family
Constellation facilitators would like to publicly criticize Mr. Cohen, my
organization, TruthWinsOut.org, would be more than happy to publicize such a
repudiation of him. A short letter telling him to stop distorting this work
would be helpful and set the record straight. That seems like a reasonable
solution.
Does anyone want to formulate a collective response?
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Booth Cohen [mailto:danbcohen@xxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 11:06 AM
To: 'ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: Two Books About Family Constellations and Homosexuality
In doing my research, I came across an exchange about Hellinger, Family
Constellations, and homosexuality in two books.
The first is "Coming out Straight" by Richard Cohen. The author claims that
being gay results from the pathological condition Same-Sex Adfective
Disorder. He uses Hellinger's statements (e.g. pp. 70-74 "Love's Hidden
Symmetry") to buttress his argument.
The second is a book written in rebuttal, "Anything But Straight: Unmasking
the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth," by Wayne Besen. He writes:
"Drawing from the work of Bert Hellinger, Cohen proposes that a gay man can
experience recovery by examining his family structure."
I wrote Wayne Besen's via his website:
"Dear Wayne - I was doing an Amazon search for "Bert Hellinger" and came
across your mention of him in Anything But Straight.
I feel compelled to write you to say that Bert Hellinger and the worldwide
community of Family Constellation facilitators would strongly repudiate
Richard Cohen's claim that homosexuality is a pathology that can be cured by
Family Constellations.
I will spare you the details here, but Richard Cohen's claims are an
unfortunate distortion. I regret that your book suggests Constellation work
supports his claims. The opposite is true."
Am I correctly representing the majority of Constellation facilitators?
Dan
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