During a program on the conservative Christian television network Daystar on homosexuality, ex-gay therapist Jerry Mungadze insisted that he can prove his sexual orientation conversion efforts work because he has observed in his patients that after therapy the “areas of the brain that were showing the homosexuality show heterosexuality…the brain is able to go back and fire the way it is supposed to be.”
But Mungadze – who only has degrees in Biblical Studies and counselor education — wasn’t talking about actual brain scans. In fact, Mungadze’s “evidence” of brain transformation relies on crayon drawings.
Warren Throckmorton reports:
Note that patients color in a map of the brain and Mungadze reads the map like a projective test. Apparently, pink relates to femininity, red to anger/aggression, and so on. He says he can tell gay people apart from straights; and when they revert to heterosexuality, he can tell by how they color between the lines.
Who needs brain scans when you have crayons?
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As for the theory of the brain revealing itself via colors chosen by patients, I know of nothing to support it. Projective tests in general are not reliable and this one in particular looks like a method invented by Mungadze without reference to research or validation.
