Posted on 05/22/2005 1:31:30 PM PDT by Pharmboy
ATLANTA (AP) - Representatives of the nation's top psychiatric group approved a statement Sunday urging legal recognition of gay marriage. If approved by the association's directors in July, the measure would make the American Psychiatric Association the first major medical group to take such a stance.
The statement supports same-sex marriage "in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health."
It follows a similar measure by the American Psychological Association last year, little more than three decades after that group removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
The psychiatric association's statement, approved by voice vote on the first day of its weeklong annual meeting in Atlanta, cites the "positive influence of a stable, adult partnership on the health of all family members."
The resolution recognizes "that gay men and lesbians are full human beings who should be afforded the same human and civil rights," said Margery Sved, a Raleigh, N.C., psychiatrist and member of the assembly's committee on gay and lesbian issues.
The document clarifies that the association is addressing same-sex civil marriage, not religious marriages. It takes no position on any religion's views on marriage.
Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage. Eighteen states have passed constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex marriage.
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On The Net:
American Psychiatric Association: http://www.psych.org
As a person in mental health, boy do I agree.
Just as many social workers are minorities with chips on their shoulders, many psychiatrists are real sickos that need mental help themselves...
This association is made up many of Freudians. They believe that anything which keeps you from carrying out your instinctive impulses will cause neuroses: it is a parody of what Frued taught.
Actually, very often it is following your instincts without restraint which causes the problems.
I am a great skeptic about psychoanalysis. I am all for helping people, but not with witchcraft.
Don't forget these are the same people who started the "self-esteem" advocacy movement.
Of course they do. When I worked Psych in the NAVY I figure 1/3 of the Doctors were gay. There was no secret to it either, no one was in the closet and this was Portsmouth Naval Hospital which has a very large Psych unit. We had quite a few Doctors. Even one of the senior Corpsmen was a professional drag queen. Came to work with his makeup some days.
Mild disagreement here. Thirty years ago, the Freudian model was alive and well across the country; now, however, analysis is a small sidebar to psychiatric practice. True, you can still find a few of these practices on the upper west side in Manhattan, a few places in Chicago and, of course, in the navel-gazing capital of the world, LA. But at present, the great majority of community psychiatrists are really psychopharmacologists.
I certainly have known some gay shrinks, but 1/3 is more than my estimate; perhaps the ones I know are successful at hiding in the closet.
Um, shouldn't they be interested in probing the mental health aspects, if any, of homosexuality instead? Why promote marriages based on Same Sex Attraction Disorder?
Like the decision to accept homosexuality as a lifestyle rather than a form of deviancy, this is a political decision and not a medical conclusion.
Well put. Social engineering by fiat.
My whole rotation in Psych in Medical School was with a gay Doc who was married and had children. He told me he and his wife had an agreement. The whole month was going to trunk fashion shows that served wine and cheese. A trip to a gay club with a cross dresser that asked me a very rude question in the bathroom. Plus the first thing I saw as I walked into the club was two guys 4 feet within the door doing a Monica. I was shocked. As you can tell I have never forgot it. I learned abosolutely nothing except about the gay lifestyle.
May I suggest a vacuum cleaner as the instrument of choice.
...at the expense of everybody else, particularly minor victims of molestation and abuse.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
We need a constitutional amendment that bans homosexual marriage and civil unions. This garbage won't end until it's passed.
"in the interest of maintaining and promoting MENTAL health."
After AIDS continues to run rampant, especially among these "married(?)" homos, then I'm sure that the APA will finance all the cures which will be needed. The APA must also promote the PHYSICAL health. They are doctors, aren't they? Yeah!! (sarcasm)
If the world suddenly became "stable." we would have a lot of shrinks driving taxis.
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