Edited correspondence on the status of homosexuality in DSM-III

J Hist Behav Sci. 1982 Jan;18(1):32-52. doi: 10.1002/1520-6696(198201)18:1<32::aid-jhbs2300180105>3.0.co;2-0.

Abstract

In 1973, after a prolonged period of social agitation and professional conflict, the American Psychiatric Association deleted homosexuality from its official listing of psychiatric disorders (DSM-II). In its place a new classification for homosexuals distressed over their orientation was to be included in DSM-II. Four years later an acrimonious dispute surfaced over the status of homosexuality in the revised APA nomenclature of disorders (DSM-III). The edited correspondence of the participants in this dispute is presented here as a way of revealing the lingering conflict over homosexuality within American psychiatry.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • History, 20th Century
  • Homosexuality*
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders / classification
  • Psychiatry / history
  • Societies, Medical / history
  • Writing