Medical Thought

From fifties

In 1952, the APA; the American Psychiatric Association, published the first DSM. The DSM is the acronym for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This American handbook listed categories of mental disorders and the criteria for the diagnoses. The compendium was used by mental health professionals as a tool for uniform statistical data for psychaitric hospitals. It was also used by other agencies such as the Bureau of Census and the United States military. In the first edition, the DSM listed homosexuality under a category of mental disorder. The treatment for curing homosexuality included Aversion Therapy through the use of electrical shock delivered to patient's gentitals if they showed signs of sexual arousal from same sex images. Other therapies such as Psychoanalysis, Hormone Therapy, Lobotomies, Religious Therapy, and Beauty Therapy were also used. The seventh printing of the DSM II in 1974 marked the first time that homosexuality was removed as a mental disorder. This was due to protests from from homosexual within the APA but also from the research conducted by Dr. Alfred Kinsey and Dr. Evelyn Hooker.