Freud
Freud is considered by many people as the founder of modern psychiatry or at least psychoanalysis. He thought that homosexuality is just a normal variation in human sexuality and he did not think that it is a pathology. (1,2)
Other Psychoanalysts:.
Other psychoanalysts had differing views from Freud. Some of their theories stated that homosexuality was a "phobic" reaction to the other sex or a psychopathology related to the Oedipal complex. (1)
The common factor between all these psychoanalytic theories is that they were based on clinical observations and not on sound research. The main criticism for these theories/studies was that they included biased samples. Their research subjects were mainly people who were seeing psychiatrists at that time (therefore were already in distress), and they did not constitute a random sample of the whole homosexual population. More importantly, these persons were not being compared to a heterosexual control group to see if the findings were actually significant. (1)
Needless to say, the widespread preformed negative attitude towards homosexuals and the lack of agreed upon definitions of homosexuality per se affected that research.
Kinsey
In 1948, Kinsey conducted groundbreaking studies that looked at sexual behavior in American adults. His studies revealed that a significant number of his research participants reported having engaged in homosexual behavior. Kinsey's studies are viewed by many people as the eye opener to the actual prevalence of homosexuality in America, a prevalence that turned out to be much more than originally assumed. (1,2)
Social Science Research
Social science researchers helped change the prevailing negative view of homosexuality. Ford and Beach found that homosexual behavior was widespread among various nonhuman species (mainly primates) and in a large number of human societies. (1)
Evelyn Hooker
In the mid 1950s, Hooker was among the pioneers in conducting sound research in the area of homosexuality. She was able to compare homosexuals to heterosexuals to see if there was any difference in their psychological adjustment. In her studies, she recruited homosexual subjects who were functioning in society (rather than patients in clinical settings) and she blinded the researchers towards the sexuality of her subjects to reduce bias. (1)
Hooker concluded from her data that homosexuality is not inherently associated with psychopathology.
Thomas Szasz
In the mid 50s, Szasz launched an attack on the discipline of psychiatry accusing it of assuming social roles that were previously assumed by religion. In 1965, he made his statement linking the normalization of heterosexuality to biological needs for procreation. (1)
The American Psychiatric Association
Confronted with overwhelming empirical evidence that homosexual people were not prone to more psychopathology than their heterosexual counterparts, changing cultural views towards sexuality, and driven by the increasing gay political protest, psychiatrists and psychologists have radically altered their views on homosexuality during the last two decades.
Homosexuality was considered as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) until 1973. In 1980, homosexuality per se was finally removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Some people look at the action taken by the APA as a mere political move in response to the pressure from the gay community while others view the change as a result of the transition of psychiatry from a "non scientific" to a more "scientific" field that relies on empirical data and sound research. (1)
Other Professional Health Associations
Following the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the National Association of Social Workers both took an official stand by declaring that homosexuality per se is not a disease. Read more
The World Health Organization (WHO)
On January 1, 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from its list of diseases. In the 10 th revision of the WHO International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), "ego-dystonic sexual orientation" is listed under the heading of "psychological and behavioral disorders associated with sexual development and orientation. The ICD-10 clearly states: "The sexual orientation alone is not to be regarded as a disorder". (2)
References:
1 - Ronald Bayer. 1987. Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The politics of Diagnosis. Princeton University press. Princeton New Jersey.USA.
2- Harold I. Kaplan, MD, Benjamin J. Sadock, MD, Jack A. Grebb, MD. 1994. Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiary Behavioral Sciences Clinical Psychiatry . 7 th edition. William and Wilkins. Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
