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from Social Issues
California Psychologist Wants 'Extreme Bias' Against Homosexuals Added To 'DSM'
January 6, 2006 -
In early December 2005, Washington Post writer Shankar Vedantam reported on the
efforts of UCLA psychology professor Edward Dunbar to encourage the psychiatric
community to add "extreme bias" against homosexuals (or ethnic groups) added to
the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM).
Professor Dunbar is considered an expert on hate crimes and serves as a
consultant with the Los Angeles City Police Department, the LA Unified School
District and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
The Post article quotes Darrel A. Regier, director of research at the APA who
supports research into whether pathological bias is a disorder but wonders if
adding it to the DSM would be useful. "If you're going to put racism into the
next edition of DSM, you would have enormous criticism." Critics would ask,
"'Are you pathologizing all of life? You better be prepared to defend that
classification."
Sally Satel, author of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting
Medicine, calls Dunbar's proposal "absurd" and says such a diagnosis could be
used by hate crime perpetrators to escape punishment.
However, Alvin F. Poussaint, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
agrees with Dunbar and characterizes individuals with extreme bias as
"delusional." He notes: "They imagine people are going to do all kinds of bad
things and hurt them, and feel they have to do something to protect themselves.
When they reach that stage, they are very impaired."
Shama Chaiken, with the California Department of Corrections also agrees with
Dunbar. "We treat racism and homophobia as delusional disorders."
Additional Reading:
Dr. A. Dean Byrd's review of Destructive Trends In Mental Health: The
Well-Intentioned Path To Harm; Destructive Trends In Mental Health: The
Well-Intentioned Path To Harm; Psychology Losing Scientific Credibility, Say APA
Insiders; HOMOPHOBIA: A Scientific Non-Political Definition.
Updated: 8 February 2008
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