Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality

Jack Drescher

doi:10.3390/bs5040565

Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality

Behav Sci (Basel). 2015 Dec 4;5(4):565-75. doi: 10.3390/bs5040565.

Author

Jack Drescher^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ 440 West 24 Street, #1A, New York, NY 10011, USA. jackdreschermd@gmail.com.
² Department of Psychiatry, New York Medical College, 20 Hospital Rd, Valhalla, New York, NY 10595, USA. jackdreschermd@gmail.com.
³ Postdoctoral Progam in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York University, 547 La Guardia Place, New York, NY 10012, USA. jackdreschermd@gmail.com.
⁴ William A. White Institute, 20 West 74th Street, New York, NY 10023, USA. jackdreschermd@gmail.com.

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.

Keywords: American Psychiatric Association (APA); Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM); diagnosis; gender beliefs; gender binaries; homosexuality; psychiatry.