Homosexuality was traditionally considered as a “mental
illness” according to many psychologists. However, this idea succumbed when
they failed to “produce any empirical or
scientific basis” to term it as a psychological
abnormality (Wikipedia, 2012). Since then, homosexuality is taken as just a
normal case of different sexual orientation. So, it is more of a “born this
way” thing than a “choice”.
Homosexuality is not heavily
prevalent in our societies when we study from the surface. In terms of
demography, only a small percentage of people are known to be homosexual.
However, the number can be higher because many of them do not openly show up
themselves due to negative social attitudes towards them (like homophobia) in
most of the world, despite the fact that it is now more accepted in some
western countries.
When explaining homosexuality using
biology, researchers have found that the areas of the hypothalamus in
homosexual people are different from that of heterosexual ones (Charles
Stangor, Introduction to Psychology, p. 317). Also, if one of the identical
twins is homosexual, there is a high probability that another would also be so
(Charles Stangor, Introduction to Psychology, p. 317).
Homosexuality is also related with
psychological adjustment. Not all homosexual people accept their biological
sexual orientation, and try to change to heterosexual against their biology due
to negative personal, social and religious perceptions towards it. In such a
case, they generally seek so called “Gay
affirmative psychotherapy” in
order to psychologically adjust to the fact that homosexuality is natural and
not a mental illness (Wikipedia, 2012). So, we can say that homosexuality is no
more considered as an illness, it is more of a genetic outcome.
References:
Stangor, Charles (n.d.), Emotions and Motivation, Introduction
to Psychology, pp.317
Wikipedia (2012), Homosexuality
and Psychology, Accessed:
October 9, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_psychology
© Dixit Bhatta 2013
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