Posted by laima on March 2, 2007, at 8:04:31
In reply to Re: Diagnoses, interesting and otherwise, posted by notfred on March 2, 2007, at 0:01:41
Well, this is all very interesting, thank you for providing the information.I just personally don't find any of my gay friends to be-I don't even know what word to use which won't push buttons-so here's an old one which used to be tossed about, but most of us now recognize as obsolete (I hope it's obsolete): "deviant", or otherwise "abnormal" in any way, and that's why I found it appalling when I learned that this distinction, being gay, was ever considered a psychiatric disorder. Yes, some of my friends suffer from depression and/or other problems, some of it directly attributal to issues related to their being gay, such as taunting, feeling unsafe, estranged from or rejected by some family members--but that-depression, anxiety, etc- should be, and is, their diagnosis(es), in my belief. My friends are lovely people.
> "So how can they allow this to escape the DSM altogether? Surely there's a place for it, if only as a type of personality disorder or neurological problem?
> >
> > On what grounds exactly did they remove homosexuality from the DSM? Are there such things as heterosexigens and homolytics?"
>
>
> The DSM still mentions homosexuality in the context of an adjustment disorder.
>
>
> The first study I know if is Evelyn Hookers, in 1957, which "challenged the sickness model of homosexuality then prevalent, and helped pave the way for the modern gay rights movement". Using
> matched pairs of gay and str8 men she came up with
> unexpected results (for that era):
>
> "She administered three personality tests, including the Rorshach ink-blot test, to thirty pairs of men--one homosexual, one not--matched by IQ level, age, and other factors. These tests were accepted by the community of medical and mental health professionals as indicating the presence of emotional and mental disorders. Presumably, homosexual persons would be easy to differentiate owing to the presence of pathology.
>
> The experts concluded that the gay males were no worse, and sometimes better adjusted than the rest, and proved unable to identify correctly the gay male in each pair."
>
> http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/hooker_e.html
>
> I think this study had something to do with the change in the DSM, in 1979:
> Masters, W.H. & Johnson, V.E. (1979), Homosexuality in Perspective. Boston: Little, Brown.
>
> Dr. Robert Spitzer was a key player in changing the DSM, odd considering his later research:
>
> http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-spitzer
>
> Here is a bit more history:
>
> http://www.rainbowhistory.org/APA.htm
poster:laima
thread:737261
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070302/msgs/737592.html