Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality

Abstract

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed the diagnosis of “homosexuality” from the second edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). This resulted after comparing competing theories, those that pathologized homosexuality and those that viewed it as normal. In an effort to explain how that decision came about, this paper reviews some historical scientific theories and arguments that first led to the placement of homosexuality in DSM-I and DSM-II as well as alternative theories that eventually led to its removal from DSM III and subsequent editions of the manual. The paper concludes with a discussion of the sociocultural aftermath of that 1973 decision.

Projeto Cuidar-te e Saúde LGBTI: Uma experiência em extensão universitária sobre a saúde da população LGBTI no ensino da Enfermagem

“…O movimento de reconhecimento e luta das pessoas Intersexuais é recente e vem sendo incorporado tanto na dinâmica da militância quanto na academia; 7 Heteronormatividade é descrita como: a identificação de identidades e práticas heterossexuais como "naturais, centrais" e a marginalização de os não-heterossexuais (ERBAUGH, 2007 (DRESCHER, 2015). O mesmo não ocorreu com a transexualidade, que tem sua expressão de identidade de gênero patologizada sob o CID F 64.0 (BENTO, 2010).…”

Sickness, “sin” and discrimination: Examining a challenge for UK mental health nursing practice with lesbian, gay and bisexual people

“…After a highly strategic and continuous 8‐year campaign by American gay liberation activists and civil rights allies, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) finally declassified homosexuality as a sickness in the 1973 DSM‐II‐R (Bayer, ; Carr, ). However, it was only in 1994 that the DSM‐IV omitted reference to same‐sex attraction as a disorder altogether and it was finally removed as a mental illness per se from the World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) in 1990 (Drescher, ; World Health Organization, ). Despite this, the pathologization of same‐sex attraction and gender nonconformity continues in the form of the WHO ICD‐10 “F66” disorders relating to sexual orientation and gender identity which still allow for the possibility of pathologization depending on individual clinician (including their personal or religious beliefs) or dominant social and moral culture or legal frameworks of the particular country.…”

“…Historically, in Western psychiatry, the clinical “problem” focus has been same‐sex attraction, which has often been confused or conflated with gender identity issues because of gender nonconformity in some LGB people (Bayer, ; Drescher, ). The focus of this paper is LGB people and same‐sex attraction.…”

Limb amputation and other disability desires as a medical condition

“…A case in point is homosexuality, a "sociopathic personality disturbance" in DSM-I, a "sexual deviation" in DSM-II, and no longer any disorder from DSM-III onwards. 88 People with disability desires are increasingly lobbying that their condition should be listed, partly to promote the availability of surgical treatment. Given the massive distress accompanying disability desires one might wonder whether BIID would not better be read as BD, for "body dysphoria" (panel 4).…”