Dismantling a Diagnosis: Episode 3: Out of the DSM & into the Present — A Conversation about LGBTQ+ Mental Health

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Making Gay History

Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, History, Sexuality, Personal Journals

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eric is joined in conversation by Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth and Dr. Ilan H. Meyer to delve into the past and present of mental health for LGBTQ people. They discuss historical stigma, the ramifications of the American Psychiatric Association’s declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder 50 years ago, and shifting psychiatric understandings of LGBTQ mental health in relation to societal pressures and prejudice. They also explore the continued pathologization of trans people, and the barriers that exist to finding accessible, safe, and informed care. The MGH episode about Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld mentioned in the episode can be found here. Visit our episode webpage for additional resources and a transcript of the episode. For exclusive Making Gay History bonus content, join our Patreon community. ——— To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're going to. Welcome back to our Making Gay History mini series, dismantling a diagnosis.
0:19.0	I'm Eric Marcus.
0:21.0	50 years after the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from its list
0:26.7	of mental disorders in the diagnostic and statistical manual, we've been looking back at what
0:31.4	that change meant. and in this episode we're going to be talking about the current realities of mental health for LGBTQ people.
0:40.0	I was 15 at the time of the vote in 1973 and just coming into an understanding of my own
0:46.3	sexuality.
0:47.3	I wasn't aware the vote had happened.
0:49.7	It didn't filter down to Kew Gardens in Queens. All I knew was that what I was feeling was wrong
0:55.6	according to every signal and message I'd received from the world around me.
1:00.0	When I began researching homosexuality for my freshman year sociology paper, many of the awful books that were on the shelves when Barbara Giddings, Kay Louhousin, and Frank Kammani entered the battle with the APA were still there.
1:12.0	And I found them horrifying. They were also a handful of books that
1:16.2	reflected the change to the DSM and others that simply assumed it and moved on
1:20.6	from there. When I wrote the paper,
1:23.1	Marginal Men, the homosexual and the alcoholic,
1:25.7	the language I used echoed so much of the literature of the recent past.
1:30.4	LGBTQ people as inverts with arrested development, maladjusted.
1:37.4	The language has moved on since then.
1:39.6	The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders has been revised many times since then, but the harmful effects of stigma have been long lasting and remain profound.
1:50.0	50 years after 1973's reclassification, we wanted to open up a conversation on making
1:56.8	gay history about mental health today in our LGBTQ communities.
2:02.2	And to do that, I'm joined by a couple of leaders in the field.
	...

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