Posted by notfred on March 2, 2007, at 0:01:41
In reply to Re: Diagnoses, interesting and otherwise, posted by Quintal on March 1, 2007, at 20:30:09
"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:
poster:notfred
thread:737261
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070224/msgs/737529.html