Jack Drescher (born 1951) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

known for his work on

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

and

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

Education and affiliations

Drescher earned a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in biology from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

in 1972 and a

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

from

University of Michigan Medical School The University of Michigan Medicine (branded as Michigan Medicine) is the academic medical center of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It consists of the university's Medical School, affiliated hos ...

in 1980. He completed an

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

in psychiatry at St. Vincent’s Hospital & Medical Center and a

residency Residency may refer to: * Artist-in-residence, a program to sponsor the residence and work of visual artists, writers, musicians, etc. * Concert residency, a series of concerts performed at one venue * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or m ...

SUNY Downstate Medical Center SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is a public medical school and hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It is the southernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and the only academic medical center for health education, ...

. Drescher trained in

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

at the

William Alanson White Institute The William Alanson White Institute (WAWI), founded in 1943, is an institution for training psychoanalysts and psychotherapists that also offers general psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. It is located in the Clara Thompson building of the Upper We ...

, where he is a training and supervising analyst. He is a faculty member and senior psychoanalytic consultant at the

Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research The Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research was founded in 1945. It is part of the Department of Psychiatry of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Training It offers training in adult and ch ...

, clinical professor of psychiatry at

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (officially known as Columbia University Roy and Diana Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) is the medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irvin ...

and an adjunct professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

postdoctoral program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Drescher is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...

. He is a member of the

American College of Psychiatrists The American College of Psychiatrists is an American association of psychiatrists based in Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United Stat ...

and the

International Academy of Sex Research The International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) is a scientific society for researchers in sexology. According to John Bancroft, retired director of the Kinsey Institute, IASR "can claim...most of the field's leading researchers." IASR is uniqu ...

. He is a past president of the

Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

and a past president of the New York County Psychiatric Society. He is emeritus editor of the '' Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health''.

Ex-gays and conversion therapy

Drescher was an early professional critic of the

ex-gay The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual re ...

movement and

conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have ...

, calling it "questionable in its efficacy" and citing potential harms of therapy to suppress or change sexual orientation.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

(July 10, 2007)
Psychologists to review stance on gays
''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' In addition to writing about the ethical concerns,Drescher, Jack (2001).
Ethical Concerns Raised When Patients Seek to Change Same-Sex Attractions
. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy 5 (3/4): 183. Haworth Press. Drescher has likened attempts to suggest there is a professional debate about this to

creationism Creationism is the faith, religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation, and is often Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific.#Gunn 2004, Gun ...

: "You create the impression to the public as if there was a debate in the profession, which there is not."Luo, Michael (February 12, 2007)
Some Tormented by Homosexuality Look to a Controversial Therapy
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' Drescher was one those who spoke out after

Robert Spitzer Robert Spitzer may refer to: * Robert Spitzer (political scientist) (born 1953), American political scientist * Robert Spitzer (priest) (born 1952), American Jesuit priest and philosopher * Robert Spitzer (psychiatrist) Robert Leopold Spitzer ( ...

in 2003 published his findings that some gay people can alter their orientation.Duin, Julia (May 9, 2001)
New psychiatric study says gays can alter orientation
''

Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout Washington, D. ...

'' Spitzer in 2012 repudiated the 2003 study's conclusions.

Gender identity

Drescher was a member of the

DSM-5 Workgroup on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. His subworkgroup was responsible for revising the DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder to the DSM-5 diagnosis of

Gender Dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to inconsistency between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender i ...

. He was section editor of the chapter on Gender Dysphoria in the 2022 text revision of the DSM-5 or DSM-5-TR. He was also a member of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health which revised the sex and gender diagnoses in WHO's

International Classification of Diseases The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a globally used medical classification that is used in epidemiology, health management and clinical diagnosis. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the dir ...

(ICD-11). That working group's recommendation was to rename the diagnoses "Gender Incongruence" and to move the GI diagnoses out of the mental disorders section of ICD into a new chapter called "Conditions Related to Sexual Health".Belluc, Pam (July 26, 2016)
W.H.O. Weighs Dropping Transgender Identity From List of Mental Disorders
''

Selected publications

*''Homosexuality, gay and lesbian identities, and homosexual behavior. Jack Drescher, William Byne. In Sadock BJ, Sadock VA, Ruiz P (Eds), Kaplan and Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Tenth Edition. Wolters Kluwer, Philadelphia, PA, (2017), pp. 1982-2013.'' *''Gender identity, gender variance and gender dysphoria. Jack Drescher, William Byne. In Sadock BJ, Sadock VA, Ruiz P (Eds), Kaplan and Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Tenth Edition. Wolters Kluwer, Philadelphia, PA, (2017), pp. 2023–2039.'' *''Gender diagnoses. In Legato MJ (Ed), Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine: Gender in the Genomic Era, Third Edition. Academic Press (Elsevier), London, (2017), pp. 17-26.'' *''Trauma and psychoanalysis: Hierarchies of suffering. In: Petrucelli J, Schoen S (Eds.) The Unknowable, the Unspeakable, and the Unsprung: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Truth, Scandal, Secrets and Lies. Routledge: New York and London, (2017), pp. 61–68.'' *''Revising the ICD-10 Mental and Behavioural Disorders classification of sexuality and gender identity based on current scientific evidence, best clinical practices, and human rights considerations. Reed GM, Drescher J, Krueger RB, Atalla E, Cochran SD, First MB, Cohen-Kettenis PT, et al.

World Psychiatry ''World Psychiatry'' is a medical journal covering research in the area of psychiatry. It is the official publication of the World Psychiatric Association. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell and the editor-in-chief is Mario Maj. Abstracting and ...

, (2016), 15:205–221.'' *''The growing regulation of conversion therapy. Drescher J, Schwartz A, Casoy, F, McIntosh CA, Hurley, B, Ashely K, et al. Journal of Medical Regulation, (2016), 102(2):7-12.'' *''Gender incongruence of childhood in the ICD-11: Controversies, proposal, and rationale. Drescher J, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Reed GM. Lancet Psychiatry, (2016), 3:297-304.'' *''New Italian lesbian, gay and bisexual psychotherapy guidelines: A review. Lingiardi V, Nardelli N, Drescher J.

International Review of Psychiatry International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

, (2015), 27(5):405-415.'' *''Queer diagnoses revisited: The past and future of homosexuality and gender diagnoses in DSM and ICD.

, (2015), 27(5):386-395.'' *''Can sexual orientation be changed? Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, (2015), 19(1):84-93.'' *''Ethical Issues in Treating LGBT Patients. In Sadler J, van Staden CW, Fulford, KWM (Eds) Oxford Handbook of Psychiatric Ethics. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2015, pp. 180-192.'' *''Ethical issues raised by the treatment of gender variant prepubescent children. Drescher J, Pula J.

Hastings Center Report The ''Hastings Center Report'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal of bioethics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Hastings Center (Garrison, New York). The editor-in-chief is Gregory Kaebnick. According to the ''Journ ...

, (2014), 44, Suppl 4:S17-22.'' *''Proposed declassification of disease categories related to sexual orientation in ICD-11: Rationale and evidence from the Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health. Cochran SD, Drescher J, Kismodi E, Giami A, García-Moreno C, Reed, GM.

Bulletin of the World Health Organization The ''Bulletin of the World Health Organization'' is a monthly public health journal published by the World Health Organization that was established in 1948. Articles are published in English and abstracts are available in Arabic, Chinese, Englis ...

, (2014), 92:672–679.'' *''Are the kids all right? Avuncular reflections on the gayby boom. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, (2014), 18(2):222-229.'' *''Treatment of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Patients. In Hales RE, Yudofsky SC, Roberts L (Eds) American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Psychiatry, Sixth Edition. American Psychiatric Press, Washington, DC, (2014), pp. 1293-1318.'' *''Controversies in gender diagnoses. LGBT Health (journal), (2014), 1(1):9-15.'' *''Treating Transgender Children and Adolescents. Drescher J. & Byne, W., editors (2013), New York: Routledge.'' *''The LGBT Casebook. Levounis, P., Drescher J. & Barber, M., editors (2012), Washington DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.'' *''Minding the body: Situating gender diagnoses in the ICD-11. Drescher J, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Winter S.

, (2012), 24(6): 568–577.'' *''The removal of homosexuality from the DSM: Its impact on today’s marriage equality debate. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, (2012), 16(2):124-135.'' *''Queer Diagnoses: Parallels and Contrasts in the History of Homosexuality, Gender Variance, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

Archives of Sexual Behavior The ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal in sexology. It is the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research. History The journal was established in 1971 by Richard Green, who served a ...

(2010), 39:427–460.'' *''Homosexuality, gay and lesbian identities, and homosexual behavior. Jack Drescher, William Byne. In Sadock BJ, Sadock VA, Ruiz P (Eds), Kaplan and Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Ninth Edition (2009). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, MD, pp. 2060–2090.'' *''When Politics Distorts Science: What Mental Health Professionals Can Do. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health (2009), 13(3):21-226'' *''Childhood Gender Nonconformity and the Development of Adult Homosexuality.'' Mathy, R. & Drescher, J., editors. (2009), New York: Routledge. *''A History of Homosexuality and Organized Psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry (2008), 36(3):443-460.'' *''From Bisexuality to Intersexuality: Rethinking Gender Categories. Contemporary Psychoanalysis (2007), 43(2):204-228.'' *''Transgender Subjectivities: A Clinician's Guide.'' Leli, U. & Drescher, J., editors. (2004), New York: Harrington Park Press. *''Addictions in the gay and lesbian community''. Jeffrey R. Guss, Jack Drescher, editors. New York: Haworth Medical Press, c2000. *''British lesbian, gay, and bisexual psychologies: theory, research, and practice''. Elizabeth Peel, Victoria Clarke, Jack Drescher, editors Binghamton, NY : Haworth Medical Press, c2007. *''Crystal meth and men who have sex with men: what mental health care professionals need to know''. Milton L. Wainberg, Andrew J. Kolodny, Jack Drescher, editors. New York: Haworth Medical Press, c2006. *''Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study And Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture''. Jack Drescher, Kenneth J. Zucker (Editors). Harrington Park Press *''Gay and lesbian parenting''. Deborah F. Glazer, Jack Drescher, editors. New York: Haworth Medical Press, c2001. *''A gay man's guide to prostate cancer''. Gerald Perlman (Editor), Jack Drescher (Editor) Binghamton, NY: Haworth Medical Press, c2005. *''Handbook of LGBT issues in community mental health''. Ronald E. Hellman, Jack Drescher, Binghamton, NY: Haworth Medical Press, c2004. *''Mental health professions and homosexuality: international perspectives''. Vittorio Lingiardi, Jack Drescher, editors. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Medical Press, c2003. *''Psychoanalytic therapy and the gay man''. Jack Drescher. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press, 1998. *''Sexual and gender diagnoses of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM): a reevaluation''. Dan Karasic, Jack Drescher (Editor). New York: Haworth Press, c2005.

References

External links

Jack Drescher, M.D. official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drescher, Jack Living people 1951 births Psychiatry writers on LGBTQ topics Transgender studies academics American psychoanalysts American psychiatrists American sexologists University of Michigan Medical School alumni Brooklyn College alumni Gay academics American gay writers