Preview

Homosexuality Is Not a Psychological Disorder

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1006 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Homosexuality Is Not a Psychological Disorder
Homosexuality is not a psychological disorder…
In the past, homosexuality was considered to be a psychological disorder, up until the APA removed it from its list of mental illnesses. This was due to the fact that homosexuality causes no form of impairment on the individual’s judgment, stability, reliability, or general social and or vocational abilities. This decision made over 30 years ago, has caused a lot of criticism, many believe that the APA’s decision was made due to the amount of influence that the homosexual activism and not according to the scientific data that was collected. There are two possible sides to this assumption about whether or not homosexuality is and should be considered a psychological disorder.
According to an article published in the Scientific Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disputes in Science and Technology, edited by H. Tristam Engelhardt Jr., and Arthur Caplan, Cambridge U. Press, 1987. Dr. Irving Bieber, described the attempts for psychiatry to adopt a new perspective regarding sexual normality. During this time the psychiatric professions were moving from the established psychoanalytic theories based on unconscious motivations, in which they claimed that if you cannot visible see distress, dysfunction, and or disability among psychological conditions then it isn’t seen as being disordered. Dr. Bieber while attempting to describe the difficulty of classifying homosexuality concluded that homosexuality was not a normal sexual adaptation. When the APA adapted a new set of criteria for defining psychological disorders, Bieber argued that psychopathology, which could possible show signs of distress, social functioning, and the ability to work effectively could be present in psychopathology. Many others agree that homosexuality is indeed a psychological disorder, and argue that it actually stems from unhappiness in the family that leads to more unhappiness throughout their lives. Many individuals refer to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Thomas Szaz’s work, The Myth of Mental Illness, raises many questions as to what constitutes mental health and at what point do we label something as abnormal. As I read the article, the argument of homosexuality came to mind as it was once considered a mental illness prior to the 1970s. Szaz’s argument that mental illness may be a product of our environments and values also mirrors that of addiction: is addiction a disease, a choice, or a disease of choice? The ethical and social mores that individuals subscribe to may lead to varying views on the status of addiction and homosexuality as mental illnesses. Although Szaz’s argument is both plausible and strong, I do believe that mental illness exists and the denial of its existence could also be seen as the use of ethical norms to ignore what we find to be unpleasant or villainize those affected by mental health, rather than give them the validation and help that they need.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It is more, for some, than disagreeing with the process by which a logician may come to this conclusion. It is an inability to comprehend it, due to moral outrage. Thus, for a long time, there was an issue of incommensurability between parts of the population and certain logicians. However, as the APA has stated, these individuals are correct in their assertion that homosexuality is not a mental illness, so perhaps sentimental reasonings should be given more weight when considering abstraction. After all, similarly to how hundreds of thousands lost their lives due to the incommensurability between Fabius's use of propositional logic and the Romans’ sentimentality, countless have suffered due to the inability to communicate between those following the logic behind homosexuality’s classification as a mental illness and those opposing it — specifically those opposing it for sentimental reasons. No matter which side is in the right, incommensurability is a major issues where abstraction conflicts with sentimentality, often resulting in devastating consequences.…

    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biological theorists believe nature is what causes homosexuality. Although, many theorists have carried out investigations into linking homosexuality to an individual’s psychological development or an illness. Karen Hooker a biological theorist did her first experiment in 1957, she explored both heterosexual and homosexual individuals from the same age group and IQ levels. However, she could not prove that homosexuality is caused because of psychological development or an illness leaving her with no correlation.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Homosexuality has been a concern for many years. Some people are okay with the fact of two people of the same sex being together. Others believe that it is a major sin. People are and can be extremely hard headed. Trying to convince them otherwise is difficult, even trying to get someone to listen to another person’s point of view is difficult. Two main arguments that come into thought are nature vs. nurture. Many aspects take into play when looking into both sides, but everyone still has their opinion. Studies show different outcomes in the topics of nature vs. nurture, there are many ideas that are spoken of that are myths not actual reality, there are many pros and cons showing differences between nature vs. nurture, and there are also religious aspects to delivering what and how people think about homosexuality.…

    • 1934 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wirlees

    • 1729 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Word “homosexual”, comes from Greek and a Latin hybrid. The Greek part, homos, means “same”, unrealation to the Latin Word homo, which means “man” many believe, assuming that would be the same as in Latin words such as in Homo sapiens. The attitudes towrads the same sex relationship have existed throught the history of human kind and had varied over the time and place for example, at some part of history all males were expected to be invl¡olved in sema-sex relationship, after the time went by, this chage to a simply integration, through aceeptance. As the time went by, these changed and started to be seen as…

    • 1729 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Heterosexual Americans uniformly disparaged gays as deviant and morally reprehensible. The American Psychiatric Association categorized homosexuality as a “mental disorder,” a position it did not jettison until 1973. Taking the psychological stereotyping a step further, Time magazine viewed homosexuality as “a pernicious sickness.” “If you were gay and you accepted those societal norms, then you were at war with yourself,” stated one college student as he recalled his own struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality. Exposure as a homosexual or lesbian could mean losing everything—job, spouse, friends, and social…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Getting married to the same gender was illegal during the 1950s. People believed that homosexuality was a mental disease that “a cure could be found through psychoanalytic treatment.” (Homosexuality in the 1950s) “Since the 1960s, however,and especially since the Bowers decision in 1986, official and popular attitudes toward homosexuals have changed. ”(The Historian's’ Case Against Gay Discrimination)…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    There has been a drastic change in the way people, scientists especially, view homosexuality. German neuroendocrinologist Günter Dörner’s attitude towards homosexuality, for example, changed from seeing it as being “a mental disorder with a biological cause” to a cluster of traits with a “natural non-pathological nature.”(5) Being homosexual is not a mental disorder. No research has proven an innate association between non-heterosexual orientations and psychopathology. Dr. Evelyn Hooker’s research in the 1950s found no difference between gay and straight men in respect to mental health. Homosexual behavior, like heterosexual behavior, is a normal part of human bonding and sexuality. Homosexuality isn’t something new or regional, it has been documented during many different time periods and within many different cultures. After a lot of research and clinical experience, all mainstream medical and mental health organizations in the U.S. have concluded that both heterosexuality and homosexuality are natural and normal parts of human…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Homosexuality Analysis

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The definition of sexuality is different for everybody. The sexuality definition of people is formed by the some factors such as culture, religion, sexual orientation etc... Sexual orientation is important factors for the form of sexuality. People have very different sexual orientation. But homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality are best-known and prevail among people. We start to explain the meaning of key words. Homosexuality involves a variety of behaviour related to a same-sex sexual orientation. Although definitions of term often focus mainly on sexual acts and attractions between persons of the same biological sex ( Herek, 2000, p.1). Heterosexuality is attraction to member of the other sex. And finally accoding to LGBTQI (Lesbian,…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chapter 8 in the textbook charts information on the public’s attitude toward homosexuality has been moving toward greater acceptance. (Macionis, 2010). In the early 1970’s the views of homosexuality were on the verge of change and gay liberation movements begin. Survey conducted in 1973 over 75% of adults in the US viewed homosexual relations as wrong and by 2006 less than 60% of adults in the US viewed homosexual relations as wrong (Macionis, 2010). In 2004 gay marriages became legal in the state of Massachusetts. This made making homosexual individuals comfortable in the world in which they lived in. Other states like Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Iowa, and New Hampshire also adapted laws for gay marriages and the number of states is still increasing today.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    From as long as one can date back, there has always been a history discrimination towards others among the general populace. First and foremost, there have been numerous accounts of judgement upon homosexuality making claims stating that it is an immoral choice, a mental disorder, or religiously unjust to be homosexual. These accusations stem as the cause of why members of the LBGT organization are shunned to society and constantly victimized, simply based off of the lack of knowledge towards the true origins of homosexuality. For example, in previous years, homosexuality was documented in the American Psychiatric Association’s, the APA’s, official list of mental disorders. The idea of homosexuality having to do with mental stability is supported…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As we move forward with identifying the social group and its issue we find that there are still issues of discrimination however, many gay and lesbians are capable of dealing with the stigma that is placed upon them. The American Psychology Association had been called…

    • 2341 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Homosexuality on the other hand is one of those behaviors that, even with extensive explanation, it is still misunderstood and looked down upon. In the article “Biased assimilation and attitude polarization in response to learning about biological explanations of homosexuality” by David Vogel & Guy Boysen, a study was ran to see if knowing about the biological reasons of homosexuality will change their negative opinions about it. Vogel & Boysen mentioned “learning about biological explanations of homosexuality does not universally increase positive attitudes.” (Vogel & Boysen p. 756). What they meant is that the people who had negative attitudes towards homosexuality did not change at all, because they already had a preexisting biased about homosexuality and the cause of the behavior. This shows that even with all the biological and psychological evidence possible, the people with negative attitudes will just use these well-founded evidences as excuses for their opinions to change on homosexuality. The study showed that people who viewed homosexuality in a positive way, before knowing the biological reasons, found the biological reasons more persuasive than those who had negative attitudes towards homosexuality. Homosexuality has not lost its stigma over the past few decades, but most of the negative attitudes come from not knowing whether homosexuality is biologically…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    About 40 years ago the APA (American Psychological Association) stated that homosexuality is not a mental disorder;…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oswalt, S. B., & Wyatt, T. J. (2011). Sexual Orientation and Differences in Mental Health,…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays