Free Republic

Is hate a disease? Some psychiatrists think so. This was the subject of a recent Washington Post article, entitled “Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness.” The title suggests the ominous implications. The Post explains, “Mental health practitioners say they regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice in the course of therapy, and that some patients are disabled by these beliefs. As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis.” In short, several psychiatrists are now pushing for...