HOMOSEXUALITY: A MENTAL DISORDER? A Term Paper Presented to Trexie O. Alawi College of Arts and Sciences SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY Tandag City, Surigao del Sur In Partial Fulfilment Of the Requirements of the Course English 102 (Writing in the Discipline): TTH 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. 2nd Semester, AY 2013-2014 By Bruce Franklyn G. Aliguay February 2014 Homosexuality: a mental disorder? Thesis Statement: People should know
Homosexuality has been one of the most controversial subjects around the world for thousands of years. Being a homosexual has been seen as taboo, morally wrong, and just abnormal. Scientists have questioned the mental health status of those who proclaim themselves as being homosexual, and have even gone as far to say that homosexuality is a mental disorder. Until 1974, being homosexual was deemed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a mental illness, and classified
Prior to the twenty-first century, homosexuality was viewed as a mental disorder that required treatment. Both counseling and aversion therapy were exercised in attempts to “cure” individuals of their sexuality. The brutal process consisted of shock therapies, lobotomies, castrations, and drugs (Scot, 2013). A device that was commonly used was the Farrall Instrument, which functioned by showing an individual of the same sex and delivering a shock until a button was pressed to deliver another slide
Mental Health and Homosexuality Would you consider homosexuality to be a mental disorder? In the past, and even in present day, people viewed homosexuality, or being gay or lesbian, to be a psychiatric problem. People would view homosexuality as a problem because of their religion, beliefs in societal normality, or maybe because they viewed it as a cause for criminal activity. In reality, none of these are true reasons as to why homosexuality would be a mental health disorder. In today’s world,
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. (DSM) The DSM has attracted controversy and criticism as well as praise since it has been used. It was first published in 1952 there have been five revisions, gradually including more mental health disorders some has been removed and are no longer considered to be mental health disorders, and the most notably being homosexuality. (DSM-11)
Homosexuality is not a psychological disorder… In the past, homosexuality was considered to be a psychological disorder, up until the APA removed it from its list of mental illnesses. This was due to the fact that homosexuality causes no form of impairment on the individual’s judgment, stability, reliability, or general social and or vocational abilities. This decision made over 30 years ago, has caused a lot of criticism, many believe that the APA’s decision was made due to the amount of influence
A psychological disorder is a disorder that involves your mind, thoughts, emotions, and even your behavior that could cause some type of stress. When you have a psychological disorder psychologist say that the abnormal behavior that comes from it must be bad for the individual, cause a high level of distress, or hinder the individual from performing everyday tasks normally. Not just any abnormal behavior makes it qualify as a disorder though, the abnormal behavior has to meet the standards set in
Is homosexuality a form or cause of disability? This is the central issue posed by Spitzer in his now widely accepted definition of mental disorder. Spitzer (1984) argues that it is not. If we assume that homosexuality is an impairment simply because it is not heterosexuality, then we have created a privileged position for heterosexuality; we are making a value judgment, not a factual judgment. Homosexual activists would argue that heterosexuality is not a defining criterion of sexual function; homosexuals
This paper goes over several topics all of which are related to the mind and what is or is not perceived as a mental disorder. There are many different types of approaches to personality. Understanding each approach and how it compares to the others will help understand how one develops their personality. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is in its fifth edition. Had the original manual never been updated, there would be many individuals who are misdiagnosed. As
"The social argument for homosexuality dates back to the ancient Greeks. Aristophanes, in his Symposium investigates homosexuality, although not termed as such, as a desire by men to share a long-term fulfillment of the soul. He believed that two souls are longing to be together, and the sexual desire alone is not strong enough to create homosexuality, but that the cultural environment allows or forbids the relationship to occur" (Heffner, 2003). The debate about homosexuality dates back further than