Homosexuality from the Psychological and Christian Perspectives Essay

The rightness or wrongness of homointimateity has long been a subject for debate in both moral and social circles. somewhat expect said that a persons gender is their own survival of the fittest and therefore should be respected. Some contend that quirk is brought on by factors both biological and purlieual and should therefore be understood. Staunch Christian believers on the other hand point out that when God created humans, He created only man and woman. Anything that goes against that is plain wrong and immoral.In the 19th century, homosexuality was defined as one persons desire and interest for another person of the similar sex (Homosexuality, 2004). Today, while the definition is still applicable, homosexuality has also generate to be viewed as wanting to be of the other gender different from ones own biology. I peckt help who I am. Is a persons homosexuality brought about as a matter of choice, by birth, or is it something in a persons environment? There have been t heories advanced in the field of psychology that state people are influenced by factors both external and internal.The late nineteenth and primeval 20th centuries saw the first scientific studies into the origin of homosexuality (Vern & Vern, 1993). The first was Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895). He was one of the first acknowledged researchers into homosexuality as intimately as one of the first people to publicly admit he was gay. In those days, he called what we know now as homosexuality urning and stated that urnings should be considered simply as the third sex. Richard von Krafft-Ebbing (1840-1902) was one of the first to issue views on homosexuality as a perversion.Then again, all sexual acts undertaken without the purpose of reproduction, to him, were unnatural and perversions of the sexual instinct. (Vern & Vern, 1993) Several studies then showed that homosexuality, particularly among males, was a common if not natural occurrence. In the journal Yearbook for the sexua l Intermediates, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a leading proponent of the estimation that homosexuality was inborn and therefore natural, states In the embryonic state, people are bisexual, merely in the course of their natural development, most lose their desire for members of the same sex.These people are the heterosexuals, who love members of the opposite sex. Another category consists of those individuals whose sexual organs develop normally but in whom the desire for same-sex individuals in the tint center fails to recede. The results are men who love men and women who love women. (Sappho and Socrates, 1896) (Russell, 1995) The field of psychoanalysis also presented their views on the origin of homosexuality. In the early days, homosexuality, as well as other deviant societal behaviors were viewed as illnesses that were treatable by psychoanalysis.One explanation advanced was that of Freuds Oedipus Complex among males and extremity envy among the female homosexuals. Freud says th at males with Oedipus complex, favored their mother and hated their father. Perhaps this can be translated to males hating their maleness because they associate it with their fathers. Women on the other hand, realize a repressed desire for a penis in their psychosexual phallic and oral stages said Freud. (Webster, 2005, p. 324) Feminist critics of Freudian theory however said that Freuds thinking were too misogynist and intelligibly anti-feminine.One pivotal development in psychiatric understanding of homosexuality was a study conducted by Irving Bieber (Dain et al. , 1962, p. 182). In a sample of 106 homosexual patients interact by either him or other psychiatrists, he found that feminine and cross-gender behavior patterns commonly manifested themselves eventide before the age of puberty. It is from this study that it was determined that homosexuality set in even before males were influenced by any hormonal surges and sexual awareness caused by puberty.These results however, ha ve been interpreted and over-simplified by some canton to mean that homosexuality must then be attributed to a male individuals human relationship with a strong, dominant mother and a adynamic or absent father. It was then proposed that homosexuality was not an illness, but rather a developmental problem brought about by conditions of family relations particularly the relationship between father and son. Homosexuality was then treated as the product of a fathers failure to bond and impress the male gender identity on his son.Father needs to mirror and affirm the boys maleness. As Payne explains, The maleness within is called forth and blessed by the masculinity without ( 1985 13 ). This beautiful and mysterious match is the union of an inner need and an outer reality. The boy seeks to take in what is exciting, fun, and energizing about his father. There is a freedom and power to outgrowing motherand this power is personified by the father. If father is warm and receptive, the boy will be encouraged to dis-identify from the feminine and enter into the masculine sphere.He will then become masculine-identified and most probably heterosexual. If both parents encourage the boy this way, he will be well on his way to fulfilling his male gender identification and heterosexuality. (Baird & Baird, 1995, p. 52) The year 1973 saw a change in the way homosexuality was viewed (Vern & Vern, 1993). Due to a vote held within the American psychological Association (APA), homosexuality ceased to be an illness and was subsequently dropped from the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. The debate on the origin of homosexuality is basically of a nature vs. urture perspective.Some have posited the idea that being gay is not a choice, one is just born gay. Others have contended that homosexuality comes from failed or uneven relationships within the family. Which very is which? Thinkers called essentialists hold forth the belief that mans make up is biological and genetic. Sexua l orientation is just one of the things that genes, hormones and brain make up decide. People are born gay and thus, cannot change or escape from that. (LeVay, 1996). (Seutter & Rovers, 2004) At the opposite end of the argument are the constructionists. For them, nobody is born gay.Sexual orientation is decided and influenced by an individuals interaction and reinforced choices in the social context particularly in the family setting. (Seutter & Rovers, 2004) Family seems to play a depict role in the determination of an individuals gender. Be it taken from a genetic contribution to setting the environment that conditions and orients an individual with society. Many psychologists oppose that a persons relationship with people around ones self will have influences of varying degrees on the individuals choices and preferences.In fact several theories have been advanced with their basis on such familial contributions. (Seutter & Rovers, 2004) Bowens Family-of-origin theory (1978) stat es that a persons self-image, behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and determine are formed by experiences within ones family-of-origin. Differentiation or the need to preserve ones self in relationships as an individual as well as the level of intimacy reached is just one of the things that are developed in the family-of-origin.Authority and power were the basis for Williamsons concept of Personal Authority (1991) In his concept, Williamson believed that an individuals person and feeling of personal was formed by leaving the parental home in the psychological if not physical sense. He further stated that only when an individual has individuated himself or set himself apart from the family and established his own identity can he reconnect voluntarily with his family. (Seutter & Rovers, 2004)Nowadays, gays and lesbians have become more empowered as opposed to the years past when homosexuals lived in fear of being discovered and insulate from society or prohibited from living normally as they chose. In a journal article by Anthony R. DAugelli (2003) for the American Journal of society Psychology, he shares Homosexuality was not removed from the psychiatric nomenclature in DSM until 1973, a year after I completed my doctoral training.During my clinical training, I wanted to discuss my feelings with person, but the idea was terrifying and, I did not seek professional help because of fear that I would be removed from my program. (After all, who trains someone with a mental disorder to be a clinical psychologist? ) In addition, despite my sexual orientation, which was fairly clear to me at that point, I could not even bring myself to share this information even with the Army physicians during my physical examination after being drafted for service during the Vietnam era.This simple truth would have removed me from induction, but I could not say the words. (DAugelli, 2003) What the Church has to Say The growing numbers of out gays and lesbians have not escaped the noti ce of the Christian churches. Traditionally, churches of different religions have been hostile toward gays and lesbians. To them, there are only two genders man and woman. There have even been some instances where there were accounts of physical and verbal humiliation and tread gay worshippers suffered within the church, at time in the hands of a priest of Father confessor.