Posted on 08/16/2012 9:18:49 AM PDT by Morgana
(LifeSiteNews.com) – You are born with an XY or an XX chromosome, primary characteristics that will objectively develop one genotype: male or female. But now you can choose whether to be male, female, or something else—and when the American Psychiatric Association releases their new manual, it will be perfectly normal.
In May 2013, the APA will publish the DSM-5, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A significant change will be the reclassification of Gender Identity Disorder to “Gender Dysphoria.” “Dysphoria” is a word meaning “emotional distress.”
Proponents of the change believe it is a positive step, removing the stigma of mental illness from a group of people—not all of whom feel the need for psychological counselling. Critics, on the other hand, including one former president of the APA, maintain that the change is motivated by politics, rather than science.
“We know there is a whole community of people out there who are not seeking medical attention and live between the two binary categories,” said Jack Drescher, a member of the DSM-5 Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group. “We wanted to send the message that the therapist’s job isn’t to pathologize.”
The APA website defines a psychological state as a mental disorder “only if it causes significant distress or disability.” It continues, “Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder.”
Dana Beyer, who helped the Washington Psychiatric Society make recommendations on matters of gender and sexuality, told the AP, “a right-winger can’t go out and say all trans people are mentally ill because if you are not dysphoric, that can’t be diagnosed from afar. It no longer matters what your body looks like, what you want to do to it, all of that is irrelevant as far as the APA goes.”
But Dr. Anthony Duk, a psychiatrist at the Inland Psychiatric Medical Group in Riverside, California, and member of NARTH (National Association for Research to Treat Homosexuality), told LifeSiteNews that the APA’s reframing would result in potentially harmful self-diagnosis.
“When you move from disorder to dysphoria, which is upset feeling, you lose objectivity. You ask how the patient feels, if they think they are dysphoric. Those that think they have a problem have a problem; those that don’t think they have a problem don’t.”
According to Dr. Nicholas Cummings, former president of the APA and Chair of The Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Foundation, the problem with the redefinition is that it may limit how much help people with gender identity issues are able to seek—and how much psychologists are comfortable giving.
“I think that [psychologists] are afraid to address the topic directly with their patients because they fear there will be repercussions from the APA,” Dr. Cummings told LifeSiteNews. “They fear a malpractice suit. It limits their response [to patients].”
Dr. Cummings explained that the APA believes gender identity is immutable and any psychologist who tries to help a patient change it commits malpractice, “which is interesting as there are patients who seek change. Change is very difficult and happens only in a minority of cases…but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Dr. Duk expressed concern that under the APA’s new definition children, who could normally experience gender identity confusion until age eleven, will be offered medications that will delay puberty so they can decide their sex.
“Pharmaceutical companies are trying to make money off of something that is contrary to the use of science and the Hippocratic oath,” Dr. Duk said.
Dr. Cummings said that the APA’s redefinition “ is more of a political issue than it is scientific,” he said. “All this talk is based on politics, attitude—not science. If you try to be scientific, you choose to be a homophobe.”
“When treatment, whether psychological or medical, is determined by politics, it’s very frightening.”
It certainly changes the entire meaning toward a pro-”gender fluidity” interpretation. No surprise though, from the APA which lost its objectivity long ago on many matters relating to gays and other aspects of the liberal agenda.
I feel disphoric when I read this kind of crap. Under these guidelines, Hitler was merely misunderstood, not a homicidal maniac. This interpretation would make the white supremacist Sikh temple killer a victim of people who had done him no harm, not their executioner. I'd really like to have the APA try that one on for size.
Psychiatry long ago became a secular religion.
It has now completed the transition, so let’s call the APA what it really is:
Satan’s House of Worship.
http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
The APA is a communist tool.
Psychiatry is as much a science as is global warming.
And is as respected by real scientists.
“a right-winger can’t go out and say all trans people are mentally ill...”
Um...I’m a right-winger...and trans...through a lifetime of knowing trans in social settings, group therapy and etc, I can say unequivocally that I have never met one trans - including myself - who was not mentally ill to one degree or another.
Most are functional...some are far too out there to be helped.
To move transgenderism out of the “disorder” category is a stupid mistake that is probably being done to cater to the gender-queer/gay lobby.
How about ‘Gender Dichotomy’?.............
The therapist doesn't "pathologize" by calling it like it is.
When they normalize all mental illnesses, who will need psychiatrists anymore?
I think the APA need their heads examined.......
This article is about Psychology, not Psychiatry.
Let’s abolish the APA
Why stop there? I want to be a ray of sunshine! Or a purple unicorn!
Let me give the true diagnosis on these malcontents: “Crazy as a $#!*house rat!”
The APA is a disorder.
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