Customer Reviews

Psychiatry, Psychology, and Homosexuality (Issues in Lesbian & Gay Life)

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Ellen Herman's book provides a fascinating history of the conception of homosexuality as a disease - from pre-Freudian days to homosexuality's inclusion and ultimate exclusion in the DSM to modern day attempts to "cure" homosexuality outside of psychiatry proper. Her style is fresh and interesting, and her history is sensitive toward those whose difficult history she describes.

My one concern is that she often refers to studies or quotes sources that she never cites, making this a difficult book to use a starting point for further research. For instance, on page 26, she writes that "doctors frequently wrote about their frustration that most homosexuals at the time had 'no occasion to go to a physician; they enjoy their abnormal life.'" However, the quotation she uses is never attributed to anyone, nor is her source mentioned. This book is therefore best for people interested in the topic personally rather than academically.