algemeiner | In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from its official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM.) Aside from defusing the anger and shame of many gays and lesbians — which helped to improve
their mental health — the APA shift facilitated great strides in the
social, cultural, political, and legal arenas in subsequent decades. As
unceremoniously absurd as the overnight change of status was, it remains
a stunning model of social engineering, cultural amelioration, and of
what grassroots political activism can achieve. As a Jew fighting
antisemitism, I find this very instructive.
If the APA has the power to
de-stigmatize human behavior by eliminating supposed disorders, might it
have the power to stigmatize and shun other behavior by adding previously unlisted ones?
I would like to propose that if
renewed research on antisemitism can more forcefully demonstrate its
association with psychopathology, its institutional recognition through
the APA manual may help to curb it.
There is indeed a body of literature that makes a good case for antisemitism as a sign or symptom of serious mental illness. To be accurate, antisemitism itself would not be the disorder, but the content of some other structural disorder, such as delusional or narcissistic personality disorder.
Furthermore, it has been broadly
proposed by several prominent researchers that racist and antisemitic
feelings, thoughts, and behaviors can be a principal co-occurring symptom of psychopathology.
