Homosexuality
in a Changing World: Are We Being Misinformed?
|
By
Dr. Nadia El-Awady
IslamOnline’s
Health & Science Editor
|
17/02/2003
|
Homosexuality
in Psychiatry
Until
the early 1970s, the U.S psychiatric establishment classified
homosexuality as a mental illness. Homosexuality appeared before
this in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM), the official reference book for diagnosing mental
disorders in America and through much of the world, listed as a
sexual disorder. Under growing political pressure from homosexual
activists, a task force was set up to review the status of
homosexuality; but the members chosen included not a single
psychiatrist who held the view that homosexuality was not a normal
adaptation. Riots were organized at scientific meetings by gay
activists in order to increase the pressure on the Psychiatric
Association. Homosexuals wished to be seen as individuals exercising
different sexual preferences rather than as being aberrant
personalities. Dr. Bieber pointed out that there were several other
conditions in the DSM-II that did not fulfill the “distress
and social disability” criteria that were used to define a
disorder. These included voyeurism, fetishism, sexual sadism, and
masochism. Dr. Spitzer of the American Psychological Association
replied that these conditions should perhaps also be removed from
the DSM-II, and that if the sadists and fetishists were to
organize as did the gay activists, they too might find their
conditions normalized!
The
APA vote was taken with unconventional speed that circumvented
normal channels for consideration of related issues.
The
factors that determined the decision of the APA to delete
homosexuality from DSM-II were summarized as follows:
Gay
activists had a profound influence on psychiatric thinking.
A
sincere belief was held by liberal-minded and compassionate
psychiatrists that listing homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder
supported and reinforced prejudice against homosexuals. Removal of
the term from the diagnostic manual was viewed as a humane,
progressive act.
There
was an acceptance of new criteria to define psychiatric
conditions. Only those disorders that caused a patient to suffer
or that resulted in adjustment problems were thought to be
appropriate for inclusion in the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual.
As
a result, homosexuality was eliminated from the Diagnostic and
Statistic Manual as a sexual disorder in 1973. The DSM
did, however, retain a category called “ego-dystonic
homosexuality-the feeling of extreme distress over one’s
homosexual preference”. Since then, DSM-III has dropped
even this category, and the issue of homosexuality is no longer even
mentioned.
However,
it appears that in contrast to the results of the vote, the majority
of the APA membership continued to view homosexuality as a
pathology. A survey four years after the vote found that 69% of
psychiatrists regarded homosexuality as a “pathological
adaptation.” A much more recent survey suggests that the majority
of psychiatrists around the world continue to view same-sex behavior
as signaling mental illness. (http://www.narth.com/docs/mentaldisorder.html)
It
must be noted, however, that the removal of homosexuality from the
DSM does not answer the question of whether or not homosexuality is
“moral” or whether it is “healthy” for society.
In
fact, gay-activist researcher Dean Hamer makes a revealing statement
about science and morality. He states, “…biology is amoral; it
offers no help in distinguishing between right and wrong. Only
people, guided by their values and beliefs, can decide what is moral
and what is not.” (http://www.narth.com/docs/innate.html)
