Progressive Nation

December 10th, 2005

Racism, homophobia, and more as psychological disorders?

In the mid 1970s, the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the catalog of mental disorders. I’m not sure that anyone back then would have guessed that in 2005 we’d be addressing the intersection between homosexuality and psychology from virtually the exact opposite perspective. Today, the debate focuses on whether or not individuals who are extremely biased against certain groups (e.g. gays, African-Americans, Jews) suffer from a disorder.

The discussion raises dozens, if not hundreds, of salient concerns but what follows are a few key points/questions that popped into my mind as I read the article:

1. In some sense, just having this debate marks a significant step forward for the gay rights movement. Most of society used to deem homosexuals as the ones with the “problem” – now it appears that the norm has switched. Pretty remarkable.

2. I wonder if there is a growing tendency to quickly label anomalous behaviors as psychological disorders. Do we live in a society where it is in vogue to pay a visit to one’s shrink and take pills to remedy almost any problem?

3. Can a societal good be served by treating extreme forms of bias as a mental disorder? Frankly, a society might be better off if the people in that society operated under the assumption that those who espouse extreme forms of hatred suffer from a kind of delusion. With that sort of attitude, individuals would be less inclined to legitimize such views. However, this is not to say that the potential benefits would be tremendous – especially since most of us would probably never assign any credence to racist rants. But, for example, those who do harbor racist beliefs, to the point where these notions debilitate them in their daily lives, might be more likely to come to terms with the fact that their views are unacceptable and, as such, strive to adjust their outlook.

4. Finally, I think this Washington Post article sums it up nicely when the writer states:

If [the proposal] succeeds, it could have huge ramifications on clinical practice, employment disputes and the criminal justice system. Perpetrators of hate crimes could become candidates for treatment, and physicians would become arbiters of how to distinguish “ordinary prejudice” from pathological bias.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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