Defending the Truth

but there weren't 40%

not that fact and truth means much to you, I know

"When the board voted last December to cease classifying homosexuality as a "mental disorder," there was dissension in the psychiatric ranks. Opponents of the ruling circulated petitions, issued angry statements and forced the A.P.A. into unprecedented action: this month, for the first time in the A.P.A.'s 129-year history, a board decision is being put to a vote of the association's entire 21,000 members.
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The December ruling, which the National Gay Task Force called an "instant cure," came after intense lobbying by homosexual groups and endorsement of the change by all the A.P.A.'s 68 district branches. In a statement accompanying the announcement of their vote (13 for change; two abstentions and four absent), the trustees declared that many homosexuals show no signs of psychopathology, are satisfied with their sexual preferences, and can function effectively in society. It therefore seemed inappropriate to call them "sick."

Those who are troubled by their homosexuality, the board said, would henceforth be described as suffering from a "sexual-orientation disturbance."

New York Psychiatrist Charles Socarides, who circulated the petition demanding the referendum, calls the ruling "the medical hoax of the century."

Says Socarides: "It is flying in the face of the one fact we know, which is that male and female are programmed to mate with the opposite sex, and this is the story of 2½ billion years of evolution and any society that hopes to survive."

"Psychiatrists are not immune to the prejudices of their culture" warns Dr. Judd Marmor, a Los Angeles psychoanalyst and candidate for the American Psychiatric Association presidency

An Instant Cure - TIME

Good old Psychiatry. Ole reliable.
Diagnosis: Totally Sane - By Larissa MacFarquhar - Slate Magazine

I didn't realise that the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) was such a joke!!

"Each edition of the DSM is the product of arguments, negotiations, and compromises. Kutchins and Kirk cite a particularly amusing example of such disputes: Robert Spitzer, the man in charge of DSM-III, was sitting down with a committee that included his wife, in the process of composing a criteria-set for Masochistic Personality Disorder--a disease that was suggested for, but never made it into, the DSM-III-R (a revised edition).

In response to one of the proposed symptoms, Spitzer's wife protested, "I do that sometimes," and Spitzer responded, "OK, take it out."

LOL what a farce!!

Even an extra hard shrug and a pout from Trissie won't get past this !!

That is not any kind of authoritative or validated fact article - it's a humorous op-ed piece.



I agree, there are a few funny lines and it's clever - but it's hardly any kind of serious examination of the APA.

Maybe next you could validate some of your absurd hypothesis with some articles from The Onion.

you get that comparison only to illustrate that it is ridiculous. the two are different issues, so connecting them makes no sense, as you say. just like homosexuality and paedophilia.

every medical discipline rethinks its diagnoses and classifications from time to time. its called progress. if we didnt have it, we would still be bloodletting to balance the four humours.

DSM is a tool, limited in scope and use, like any tool. it clearly states this in the introduction, saying that it is not designed to be used to "make the diagnosis" or for the criteria to be applied in a "cookbook" fashion. it is one tool among many to be used when it is needed clinically or empirically and to be used for the purpose it was designed. when it is found to fail or becomes out of date, it is revised. the process or the book is not perfect, does not claim to be perfect, but neither are any medical texts. thats why they keep getting revised.

you had better hope that doctors continue to rethink medicine. i fail to see how progress and recognition of new knowledge is a negative when it is your health on the line.