Masturbatory Retraining

Description of strategy

Masturbatory retraining, also termed masturbatory or orgasmic reconditioning, was introduced to treat people, usually men, who sought to convert their sexual preference from homosexual to heterosexual. More recently, it has mainly been used to treat sex offenders, usually male rapists and pedophiles. It aims to condition the man's sexual arousal to stimuli considered appropriate by instructing him to masturbate to ejaculation while using fantasies, such as making love to an adult woman or man or watching slides or listening to audiotapes. He is to totally avoid deviant fantasies, such as those of children or aggressive sexual behaviors. It was expected that he would become sexually aroused to the appropriate stimuli and his interest in inappropriate stimuli would diminish. Subsequently, a ...