Behaviorism and Mental Health

Alternative perspective on psychiatry's so-called mental disorders | PHILIP HICKEY, PH.D.

Homosexuality: The Mental Illness That Went Away

By |

Post edited and updated January 2, 2013, to reflect clarifications as a result of interactions with the many people who have left comments.  I thank them for their input.

********************

According to the American Psychiatric Association, until 1974 homosexuality was a mental illness.  Freud had alluded to homosexuality numerous times in his writings, and had concluded that paranoia and homosexuality were inseparable.  Other psychiatrists wrote copiously on the subject, and homosexuality was “treated” on a wide basis.  There was little or no suggestion within the psychiatric community that homosexuality might be conceptualized as anything other than a mental illness that needed to be treated.  And, of course, homosexuality was listed as a mental illness in DSM-II.  (The DSM – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – is the APA’s standard classification of their so-called mental disorders, and is used by many mental health workers in the USA and other countries.)

Then in 1970 gay activists protested against the APA convention in San Francisco.  These scenes were repeated in 1971, and as people came out of the “closet” and felt empowered politically and socially, the APA directorate became increasingly uncomfortable with their stance.  In 1973 the APA’s nomenclature task force recommended that homosexuality be declared normal.  The trustees were not prepared to go that far, but they did vote to remove homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses by a vote of 13 to 0, with 2 abstentions.  This decision was confirmed by a vote of the APA membership, and homosexuality was no longer listed in the seventh edition of DSM-II, which was issued in 1974.

What’s noteworthy about this is that the removal of homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses was not triggered by some scientific breakthrough.  There was no new fact or set of facts that stimulated this major change.  Rather, it was the simple reality that gay people started to kick up a fuss.  They gained a voice and began to make themselves heard.  And the APA reacted with truly astonishing speed.  And with good reason. They realized intuitively that a protracted battle would have drawn increasing attention to the spurious nature of their entire taxonomy.  So they quickly “cut loose” the gay community and forestalled any radical scrutiny of the DSM system generally.

The APA claimed that they made the change because new research showed that most homosexual people were content with their sexual orientation, and that as a group, they appeared to be as well-adjusted as heterosexual people.  I suggest, however, that these research findings were simply the APA’s face-saver.  For centuries, perhaps millennia, homosexual people had clung to their sexual orientation despite the most severe persecution and vilification, including imprisonment and death.  Wouldn’t this suggest that they were happy with their orientation?  Do we need research to confirm this?  And if we do, shouldn’t we also need research to confirm that heterosexual people are happy with their orientation?  And if poor adjustment is critical to a diagnosis of mental illness, where was the evidence of this that justified making homosexuality a mental illness in the first place?

Also noteworthy is the fact that the vote of the membership was by no means unanimous.  Only about 55% of the members who voted favored the change.

Of course, the APA put the best spin they could on these events.  The fact is that they altered their taxonomy because of intense pressure from the gay community, but they claimed that the change was prompted by research findings.

So all the people who had this terrible “illness” were “cured” overnight – by a vote!  I remember as a boy reading of the United Nations World Health Organization’s decision to eradicate smallpox.  This was in 1967, and by 1977, after a truly staggering amount of work, the disease was a thing of the past.  Why didn’t they just take a vote?  Because smallpox is a real illness.  The human problems listed in DSM are not.  It’s that simple.  You can say that geese are swans – but in reality they’re still geese.

The overall point being that the APA’s taxonomy is nothing more than self-serving nonsense.  Real illnesses are not banished by voting or by fiat, but by valid science and hard work.  There are no mental illnesses.  Rather, there are people.  We have problems; we have orientations; we have habits; we have perspectives.  Sometimes we do well, other times we make a mess of things.  We are complicated.  Our feelings fluctuate with our circumstances, from the depths of despondency to the pinnacles of bliss.  And perhaps, most of all, we are individuals.  DSM’s facile and self-serving attempt to medicalize human problems is an institutionalized insult to human dignity.  The homosexual community has managed to liberate themselves from psychiatric oppression.  But there are millions of people worldwide who are still being damaged, stigmatized, and disempowered by this pernicious system to this day.

Comments

  2. Again, I don’t need your help, and again you run away. Run! You coward. If you really believe in the words that you preach, answer my questions, if you don’t, you are proving yourself a coward

  4. I feel that the diagnosis over the past 100 years is correct. It’s a shame that noisy 3% can bully the hetero population into pretending to accept what they actually never will.

  5. What is a real shame is that some heteros insult, bully and/or attack…homosexuals just because they are homosexuals

  6. The vast majority >85% of cases of anal cancer occurs in homosexuals don’t deny this it’s fact as is the fact that homosexuals have a far shorter life span (>10 years) than straight men

  8. Appreciate the information about the vote. Though I think you don’t mention that the removal from it being a disorder was pure politics. Same-sex attraction is a disorder. It isn’t normal for men to like other men, or women to like women. Their bodies were not made for the same sex but the opposite sex. They also still retain attributes and mentality unique to their own sexes. Also a certain percentage of homosexuals are homosexual as a result of abuse, though I’m uncertain of this percentage. Other’s were not abused, other’s probably had daddy issues. I don’t say this to denigrate as I love my gay friends, but I say this to be honest. Danger doesn’t come in truth, it comes from lies and undue attention in the wrong area, such as the idea of gay people who identify as gay, instead of as people or who they are. Gay is an attribute, it is not who someone is, just like straight is an attribute. Cause and cure should still be researched as gay lifestyle, especially among men, leads to higher aids and other STD’s than straight men and women, and is associated with higher suicide rate, even in societies like Scandinavia who go out of their way to support gays. The science also says homosexuality is a product of nature and nurture. Meaning upbringing can help a person be straight. If a person doesn’t want to be straight, we can respect their decision and treat them kindly, but that doesn’t mean we should lie and say homosexuality is not a disorder when it is. Gays can be respectful and treat those kindly too who don’t support their lifestyle or orientation.

  9. I appreciate that you express your opinion with respect.
    But, your afirmations are opinions, not THE truth. I’m NOT saying that I know the truth, because I don’t, but there are several studies that say that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, so there’s controversy. Several studies say that same-sex attraction is not a disorder, it’s a variation, and that’s an opinion as valid as yours.
    Also, the hipothesis about people being homosexuals because they suffered abuse is not completely clear, the same thing happens with those daddy issues. And homosexuals are not most likely to have STD’s for being homosexuals, it’s all about protecting yourself.
    And about nature and nurture, some studies say the same about heterosexuality.
    So, my point is that since nothing has been 100% proved, we should respet each other’s points of view and sexual orientations.
    I do love when you say that homosexuality or heterosexuality are not who someone is, that’s completely true, so neither homosexuals nor heterosexuals should give that much importance to someone’s sexual orientation.

  10. Scott,

    Thanks for coming in. My original article generated so much discussion, pro and con, that I followed up with a clarificatory piece on these general issues. You might find it interesting.

    I agree with your general point that truth and palatability are separate issues.

  12. Even without bringing God into this, it is very evident that homosexuals are mentally ill people. According to a study in Australia on homosexuals, done with identical twins BTW, the co-twin of the gay one was also gay only about 11% of the time. If we’re going to look at quantitative data on the reasons behind homosexuality, if being gay actually were genetic, the prevalency would be about 100% (taking into account abuse and whatnot). We can therefore see that a person’s sexual orientation has no genetic link, as identical twins have IDENTICAL DNA and, unless, potentially, in the case of divorce where one twin is separated from the other, epigenetic factors do not cause homosexual behavior since they would be exposed to the same environment. Also, the probability of suicide among homosexuals is much higher in comparison to heterosexuals, which signifies that they could have a psychological disorder. Let’s face it – people who are mentally healthy do not try to commit suicide!!! That’s just the way it is. By the way, humans were not made to be able to reproduce by having sex with other humans of the same sex. So, yes, science (biology to be precise) goes against homosexuality.
    Now, before we go around calling people homophobes or whatever, just think… Can a person be against a certain action and NOT HATE a person or group of people??? Of course they can! If you know a person who smokes regularly and you’re friends with that person, you’ll understand that you can like and care for a person, but still disagree with them upon a topic. The same goes for not supporting LGBTQ marriage. You don’t have to hate a person to disagree with them about something. It’s just a difference of opinion. Really, that’s all that it is!!! I disagree with hating a person just because he/she is that way, but I still disagree with the idea of homosexuality being part of the normal sexual attraction spectrum. I feel sorry for these people, because most of them do not realize that they need professional help to overcome their illness. But whatever happened to them that would cause such a mental disorder should not be used as an excuse or a justification for their behavior.

  13. Well, since only the observable objective behavior of bodies count and not their imputed or reported mental states or minds, it’s good to know that Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce, is still a male and not a female based on his vote or any other voting party of professionals in on the scam ( I would use the word delusion instead of behavioral scam but that requires a mental state and doesn’t count, unlike a behavioral orientation). And most killers are happy well adjusted killers, would happily kill again, and would not suffer from PTSD, apparently a mental state, if they were not stigmatized by the medical establishment for doing what killers do normally in a kill or be killed environment while being potential victims of the violence. It seems that the medical establishment’s worries primarily concern killers doing killings for their own satisfaction in the absence of any official approvals for the killings by pacifist political cliques currently having the monopoly on violence to further their humanistic non violent values and preferences for painless humane killings, and only when required as a last resort execution by body altering substances if at all. Prenatal killings on demand performed by medical professionals are okay, however. Further, blaming the killer’s tools, say guns, for the killing is just self serving twaddle by pacifist people in power, confuses the means for the killing, the effect, for the cause of the killings, usually criminal gangs of happy killers when not state approved abortionists, and is a typical behavioral response by the cloistered medical profession who usually have their killings done for them by approved killers packing guns; and thus the beautiful people typically get to avoid being killers and victims and catching that mental state, habit, or orientation called PTSD while promoting and enabling a herd of disarmed victims for the pleasure of unapproved armed killers to exploit instead of them. And since language is just behavior, only approved safe and sane meaningful language behavior should be allowed in the therapeutic state’s taxonomy; for example, the fetus is not a human life form or a person.

  14. The APA has proved through several studies that homosexuality is not a mental illness and if some homosexuals are more likely to commit suicide is because of the hatred they recieve. You don’t have to feel sorry for them, because most of them are happy just the way they are.
    And about gay marriage, you may disagree, but you cannot forbid two people to get married just because they’re gay.

  16. Actually He said he wouldn’t flood the Earth again. The carnage will be repeated, but next time it will be by fire.

  17. And this is why someone like you should not be teaching scripture. it’s about the honor of the Sabbath it was considered to be holy and it was a direct commandment that was held under the law. Do you understand what law is if you break it you were penalized. Now this is the side of judgement but Grace is his unmerited favor through Christ but that’s not an Open Door so that you can continue in sin it is a state of forgiveness. And this is deeper that you are letting on. all liars will have their part in the Lake of Fire can a liar be forgiven absolutely but he must stop lying. Can a thief be saved absolutely but he must turn from stealing. So can I homosexual be saved again absolutely but he must turn from the vile nature or he will fall under the judgement seat of Christ and he will not be covered by the blood. If you’re going to teach the Sabbath then try to understand and teach the whole law because God did not come to do away with the law but that through Christ the law could be fulfilled.

  18. The vile nature? Are homosexuals hurting anyone!? Oh! You love someone!! You are going to burn in hell!!
    Maybe you don’t know, but homosexuals are people, people who go to work, go out with friends, get ill, eat, breathe…the only difference between you and them is that they love a different tipe of person, and you say they are vile and they are going to burn in hell…I recommend you thinking about who is the vile one here

  19. Unfortunately if you want to be gay be gay. Why all the fuss to push it down someone’s throats and try to force the government to give you special treatment? THAT’s the problem people have and I’m not sure your analysis is correct anyway. You supposed learned scientists and PhD holders are forever changing your mind on many things. Why do you think you got it right this time?

  20. It’s not about wanting to be gay. It’s not a choice.
    And we don’t want a special treatmen, we want RESPECT. Heterosexual people don’t suffer agressions for being heterosexual, homosexual people do, that’s not equality.

  21. It’s not a choice? Then you have proven my point that it is actually a mental disorder and was considered so for many many years until the progressives decided to make everything that’s abnormal normal. Therein lies the problem. You need treatment and counseling, I respect everyone, but being in the mental health field now for over 25 years, I also understand a multitude of personality disorders and mental illnesses and know that treatment is available. Making it some kind of normal human behavior is not helping anybody and certainly not helping those afflicted, such as yourself.

  22. Heterosexuality is not a choice either, does it make it a mental disorder?
    That “tratment” you talk about has been proven false, because homosexuality is not a mental disorder. I don’t need your stupid “cure”, I don’t need YOU to live my life and I don’t need to be heterosexual to have a normal live or to be completely happy.

  24. Summary: I hate fags. You clearly show your religion is based on hatred. Truly it would be best if fanatics like you died out as quickly as possible. You’re hell bent on making other people’s lives miserable and attempt to justify your sadism by waving an ancient book about. Basically you’re no better than the nazi’s who thought the jews were ‘abhorrent’, sub-human etcetera.

    Biology has shown that in certain species homosexuality is fairly common. How can your god who supposedly created everything have allowed this?

    Is it really that hard to understand your bible was written by people with projected their own values onto an imaginary deity? The bible cannot possible have been inspired by a supernatural, omniscient being as a lot of it is simply impossible by natural law (walking on water, curing by touch…) and it contains glaring scientific errors (e.g the moon being a light, the firmanent being solid, the earth being created before the sun…). You’d think someone who knew everything wouldn’t allow his followers to spout total nonsense.

  25. So you know who god is… Vanity, definitely my favourite sin.

    Homosexuality isn’t a choice any more than heterosexuality yet they deserve to be put to death. You ought to be charged for inciting hatred.

  26. “Can’t call someone a bigot without being a bigot yourself.” That is complete and utter nonsense. By your logic I can’t call someone a fool without being a fool myself. Even if they consistently say and do foolish things.

  27. Good point. “No human trait deserves less tolerance in everyday life, and gets less, than intolerance” (Giacomo Leopardi).

    What he displayed isn’t even moral relativism, it’s moral nihilism.

  28. How on earth would you know what the ‘correct’ practice of islam is? Are you well versed in ancient Arabic? Are you an islamic religious authority? Are you a reputable scholar who specialized in this topic?

    It’s funny how islamophobes always claim to be experts in what they hate, just like the nazis claimed to be experts on the jews including being privy to their innermost plans of world domination.

    There’s great variety in how islam is interpreted and practiced: anyone with some common-sense and the least bit of interest in the world will see this.

    You and ISIS share the exact same fanatical view: only the most extreme, literal, vile, violent, insane and ignorant interpretation of it (wahabism) is the ‘correct’ one. We should consider ourselves lucky the great majority of muslims are smart enough not fall into this trap or we would be fighting for our lives and the terror in our cities would be so bad life would become impossible.

    You don’t even see your ‘authentic’ christianity if interpreted literally would still lead to great bloodshed and massacres (killing the unbelievers, homosexuals…) as it did in the past. Christians throughout history have had more blood on their hands than all other religions combined.

    Christianity isn’t a hair better than islam: it only become somewhat moderate when power was wrested from it after a bloody reign of terror and oppression which lasted thousands of years.

  29. No. Stupidity is your favorite sin. You wear it like a cheap suit and it exudes from your person like venom from a serpent.

    You have been charged with being an idiot and your sentence is not going to be a light one.

    Move on fool.

  30. Did the Nazis warn people about the judgement that is coming? I thought that they looked on the surface to decide who would live and who would die. They never looked on the heart as does God. They never cared enough to search out the true intentions of others.

    Your lies have been debunked over and over, but in the evil reaches of your soul you refuse the Truth because you love the lie.

    The Bible is/was written by God Himself through the men that He authorized to speak His Word to His people.

    The Bible is the only book that is alive in the person of Jesus Christ, the God man.

    The Bible was written to confound you as well as all the followers of Satan.

    I am wiser than you and you can not stop the Word of God from being delivered to those who will hear it and who will repent of their sins and follow Christ. These people whom you falsely mock and deride are the only ones who will be saved.

    I think I’ve delivered enough of an awakening to you now and I doubt there is even a mark anywhere on your body that you didn’t do to yourself.

    Why don’t you look up the words ahead of time that you intend to insult people with? that might stop you from showing everyone else how dumb you really are.

  31. Oh, look at me, I know the Truth because I read it on an old book, and I’ll be saved because I’m warning you, it doesn’t matter how much I hate, it doesn’t matter how arrogant I am.

    You cannot justify your own hatred in a book that any schizophrenic could write. You call a fool everyone who doesn’t agree with you, but when everyone around you is a fool, you should ask yourself if the foil one is you. Just because you hate homosexuals for some reason, you say that the have chosen to be like that, and they love Satan and shit. You are no one to judge, you are no one to tell what the Truth is, you are no one, and when you die the only kingdom you’ll see is two foot wide and six foot deep.

  32. Okay. Let’s start by saying that you have a point. I hate sin. I’ll agree to that.

    But it is not for the reasons you might think. Who doesn’t love pleasure and trust me when I say that I know enough about human sensuality to confirm that it can lead to the ultimate climactic experience for ones body, but what about the soul?

    God plainly states that there is to be no sex outside of marriage. He also states that marriage is between one man and one woman. To try and act as if these two things don’t exist is to condemn not only yourself, but also the person(s) with which you share your illicit experiences.

    I’ve seen first hand the damage and destruction caused by abusive, lawless criminal minds and as I’m sure you too must know, these people know no bounds and have no respect for the sanctity of Gods authority.

    Once you head down that path towards a compromised lifestyle, you begin to lose something of yourself. Your integrity goes first and next is your honor and before long you will discover that you have sold so much of yourself for foolish pleasure that there is really no good reason left to justify your own existence or any other life for that matter.

    It is for this reason that I hate all sin, even my own, but God has commanded that those who practice sexual perversion are to be put to death.

    Why do you think that God would be willing to forgive other sin, but call for the immediate execution of those who have immersed themselves into sexual perversion?

    I know the answers why. I only ask to challenge you. I’m sure in your heart of hearts that you also know the answers, but are you willing to admit the truth?

    That is the real question. Your sin of choice is like a virus and you are spreading it to others because you live in a nation of fools who do not know God and who do not resist evil.

    Chaos must pursue a lawless nature and the signs of anarch are everywhere you look today.

    Are you really strong enough to survive the war against humanity that you have created? Or is this the convenient end to which you have been seeking all along?

    All that I know is that I am not going in the same direction as you and that while it may be too late for some, others who are contemplating entering into this lifestyle of death can still turn around.

  33. God states shit. Just because an old shitty book says that your God doesn´t like homosexuals, it doesn’t mean that God exists and it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t like homosexuals. What makes you think that the people who wrote the Bible just didn’t like homosexuals and wrote that to make people hate them? Think about that, don’t be stupid.
    And criminal minds have nothing to do with homosexuality. There are criminals that are homosexual as well as there are criminals that are heterosexual.
    I don’t give a fuck about what your God supposedly says; besides, one of the comandments sat “Thou shalt not kill”, what about that?
    Also, homosexuality has been proven not to be a mental illness by science, but it seems that you don’t care about science, cause you’re a bigot. And, I explaind to you that homosexuality is not a choice, same as heterosexuality, cause if it were a choice, people in Arabia, where homosexuals are murdered, wouldn’t choose to be gay, as simple as that.
    I think that the one who created a war against humanity is you, with your senseless hate. Go fuck your God, Bitch Mary and the holy shit.

  34. Colorful, Yes. Tasteless, Yes. Bitterly passionate as well as deeply angered by anyone who stands up and points out the fact that you have built a lifestyle on nothing more than your own perversion. It seems to me that you have demonstrated all of characteristics of a delusional psychopath, but I should qualify that with a second opinion.

    Anyway, you have brought back to mind a study I was working on several years earlier where I had all but concluded that some of the general population may in fact be animals that look like humans. The only difference is that they have no soul. Do you concur?

    Is it possible that you have no soul and therefore are not encumbered by a sense of right and wrong?

    You may think I’m joking, but I am very serious. If it could be proven that you are really just an animal, then no man-made laws would apply.

    Just think. No taxes. No speeding tickets. No child support. You could do whatever you want and there would be no penalty for your behavior.

    After all, that is what you want, isn’t it?

  35. God’s the judge of what’s abhorrent not us. Take the log out your eye before you worry about the splinter in your brothers.

  37. How can you see a log in my eye when you obviously have a forest in your own.

    In the future, keep your opinions to yourself. That way less people will know you’re stupid.

  38. That voting was rigged with fake mailing to the trustees, that letter said scientific investigation had discovered hosexuality was of genetic origin”…that was false.

  39. God HATES #TheWICKED! SO TOO, ARE WE TO!…

    http://quotes.lifehack.org/media/quotes/quote-Mark-Twain-but-who-prays-for-satan-who-in-100582.png

    #LifeHack…. #OhHahahaha… you #SMUG, #Supercilious, #SOLIPSISTIC, #CONDESCENDING, #PATRONIZING, #SelfAggandizing, #Superstitious, #Effeminate #SheMales #OnDope!

    #1Corinthians214 .. #1Corinthians215
    14 For a #beastlyman perceiveth not those things that be of the Spirit of God; for it is folly to you, and you may not understand, for it is examined ghostly [for it is examined, “or assayed”, ghostly].
    ···
    15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is “rightly” judged by no one.

    Please forgive the ##….

    Little #queer #GayGod, has over a million #subscribers… #whoAMiToJUDGE¿¿ #1Corinthians215, #Eph511…

    https://t.co/NeV4VHELFW

    #Revelation2:2
    I know your works and your labor, and your patience and how you can not bear them which are evil!

  44. This woman who is much smarter than I, was #REDEEMED! I was also, from the SLAVERY of ALCOHOLISM.

    If YOU, are GAY, and can stay MONOGAMOUS, I wish you all the best! If you have 700 hookups in a year, that’s OK, too, if they were with adults, and NOT, OUT IN THE STREET!

    But GAY PRIDE, IS PURE EVIL! Best wishes… Please don’t visit any Muslim countries.

    https://youtu.be/cc8wPOHksYs

  46. Oh, come on! Look at this : https://youtu.be/lZHuh2BJLBc
    Sexual orientation has NOTHING to do with this. The problem is some people, there are some streight people who do things like this, and there are some gay people who do things like this, so again, this is not about sexual orientation