Is Homophobia a Mental Disease? | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff - EN

Study labels 'homophobia' as a disease [Excerpts]

Dr. Robert Oscar Lopez is an associate professor of English at California State University-Northridge. The tenured educator was raised by his mother and her lesbian partner, but opposes homosexual "marriage" and adoption of children by homosexuals.

OneNewsNow spoke with Lopez recently about a recent study out of Italy that suggests people who oppose homosexuality have a high rate of mental disorders. Discussing the study, lead researcher Dr. Emmanuele A. Jannini is quoted as saying: "After discussing for centuries if homosexuality is to be considered a disease, for the first time we demonstrated that the real disease to be cured is homophobia, associated with potentially severe psychopathologies."

According to Lopez, the study was done mostly by homosexuals and their supporters in the social psychology field – a field where he says one must look long and hard to find social conservatives.

"It's almost impossible for the research teams to critique their own methodologies or to improve or to see their own biases," he explains. "... I just think this study is just part of that whole way of social psychology research that is just complete garbage at this point."

Lopez contends a dissenting voice must be heard in that field of study.

"And I think the field of social psychology, but more broadly, almost all of the academic disciplines have so thoroughly excluded anybody who is conservative or religious – and particularly religious conservatives – that they can't really see their own flaws."

(Butts, "Study labels 'homophobia' as a disease," OneNewsNow Online, 11/18/15).

[TBC: In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published in 1952 there were 60 types and subtypes of mental illness. Sixteen years later this number had mushroomed to 145, and presently it includes a whopping [374] separate conditions. Even secular sources note the bogus nature of psychology's claims. "Another example is the 'disorder' 'caffeine intoxication,' characterized by at least five symptoms after consuming the equivalent of two to three cups of coffee: restlessness, gastrointestinal problems, difficulty sleeping, nervousness, and rapid heartbeat. To meet the diagnosis, the symptoms must impair functioning in some way. It’s hard to believe that an episode of too much coffee or Red Bull constitutes a mental disorder, but there you have it. DSM-5 has added 'caffeine withdrawal' as a diagnosis—characterized by a withdrawal headache plus at least one other symptom, such as drowsiness, that interferes with some aspect of functioning. With disorders like this in the DSM, it’s no wonder that half of Americans will have a diagnosable disorder in their lifetimes" (Rosenberg, "Abnormal Is the New Normal," Slate.com, April 12 2013). Yet, in light of all of that psychobabble, the DSM has never included "Homophobia" in any of its mental disorders.]