Lecture 4
Labeling Theory
Definition and Elements: Labeling theory posits that deviance is not inherent but is created by societal reactions and judgments. It has three core elements:
Socially Constructed and Culturally Dependent: Deviance is not essential or universal; it varies across societies, meaning what is considered deviant in one culture may not be in another. It is not intrinsic to an act or individual.
Focus on Societal Construction and Labeling Process: Instead of examining individual causes of deviance, labeling theory centers on how societies construct deviance and the process by which individuals are labeled as deviant.
Power and the Making of Deviance: This element considers whose power establishes certain behaviors or practices as deviant and who is authorized to control the dominant definitions of deviance within a society.
Historical and Social Structural Construction of Homosexuality (Conrad and Schneider)
Conrad and Schneider are particularly interested in the third element of labeling theory, examining the historical and social structural construction of homosexuality.
Pre-16th Century: The Church as Dominant Institution
Homosexuals were not seen as a distinct 'type' of people. Instead, homosexual acts were condemned as sinful and immoral behaviors.
16th-18th Century: Rise of the State
Moral prohibitions against homosexuality began to be codified into law, transforming homosexual acts into criminal activity.
18th-20th Century: Rise of Medicine
Moral prohibitions against homosexuality were codified in medical language, defining it as a sickness and disease.
Cesare Lombroso (1800s): A physician who controversially argued that homosexuals were a "mutant race" and a "throwback to an earlier primitive period of human evolution," suggesting they were candidates for sterilization.
Moral Entrepreneurs and the Pathologization of Homosexuality
Moral Entrepreneur Definition: A moral entrepreneur codifies issues of morality using the language of science and medicine.
Psychiatrists as Moral Entrepreneurs (20th Century):
Sigmund Freud:
Initially, Freud's concept of the "Oedipus complex" was seen to pathologize homosexuality.
However, Freud later demonstrated a complex stance, actively supporting gay rights in Austria.
In a letter to an American mother (referenced on page 186), Freud stated that homosexuality is "assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of. No vice, no degradation. It cannot be classified as an illness. We consider it to be a variation of the sexual function produced by a certain arrest of sexual development." He added that many respectable individuals throughout history were homosexual, and it is a "great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime and cruelty too."
Mid-20th Century Psychiatry: Constructed homosexuality as a mental illness, prescribing "conversion therapy" methods such as electroshock therapy, lobotomy, and even castration.
Edmund Bergler (1956): A psychiatrist who wrote the highly respected book, "Homosexuality, Disease or Way of Life?"
Bergler's characterization of homosexuals (from page 189) included ten points:
They are "injustice collectors and psychic masochists" striving for defeat, humiliation, and rejection due to early failure in the oral stage of psychodynamic development; they are "regressed personalities."
Male homosexuals are "terrified of women" and flee from them to other men.
They typically "obliterate the personalities of their love objects"; sex is impersonal and contempt-ridden.
The typical homosexual is "perpetually on the prowl," seeing constant cruising for partners as a masochistic desire to be caught and punished.
Homosexual relations are often "camouflaged as husband-wife bonds," with one member attempting to escape into an "argument biological femininity" to account for effeminate ways.
They are characterized by an "unfounded megalomaniacal conviction that they are superior persons" and a false belief that everyone has some homosexual inclinations.
Despite outward flippancy, all homosexuals suffer from a "deep inner depression" and an "exaggerated and free-flowing malice" that psychiatrist calls "pseudo or irrational aggression."
All homosexuals experience a "deep sense of guilt from their perversion," denoting infantile sex encountered in an adult leading to orgasm – in short, a disease.
"Irrational and violent jealousy" as a masochistic mechanism is common.
10. "Unreliability ranging from a trace to a pronounced trend is the rule and not the exception" among homosexuals, often justified by the rationalization, "I've suffered so much."
Bergler's overall summation: "homosexuals are essentially disagreeable people regardless of their pleasant or unpleasant outward manner." He described their personalities as a "mixture of superciliousness, fake aggression, and whimpering," subservient when weak, merciless and unscrupulous when in power. He believed their unconscious only understood "brute force" and that an "intact ego" was seldom found among them. This exemplifies the hostility and malice of mid-20^{th}-century psychiatry.
Challenging the Medical Construction
Alfred Kinsey (1940s-1950s): An American sexologist who conducted extensive survey research with 16,392 men and women.
Findings: Kinsey shockingly found that 37 ext{%} of men and 13 ext{%} of women reported having homosexual experiences to orgasm between adolescence and old age. This challenged the cultural construction of homosexuality as deviant due to its widespread commonality.
Conclusion: Kinsey famously stated that "homosexuality as a discreet medical entity did not exist." Conrad and Schneider elaborated on Kinsey's conclusion (page 198), stating it was a "medical artifact rather than either a congenital or psychic condition of the human species." There were only homosexual acts and relationships, not an identity or disease entity.
Rejection of 'Abnormal' Label: Kinsey argued that "abnormal" medical conditions interfere with physical well-being. He wrote (page 197) that it's "not possible to insist that any departure from the sexual mores always or even usually involves a neurosis or psychosis," as most individuals engaging in taboo activities make satisfactory social adjustments.
Emergence of Pro-Homosexual Movements
Homophile Movement (1940s-1950s): Pro-homosexual organizations emerged, publishing magazines for homosexual audiences. These movements viewed homosexuals as an "oppressed minority," not a diseased population.
Pro-Gay Social Movement Organizations (1950s-1960s): Rise of groups in North America.
Franklin Kameny (1969): A leader of the homophile movement, he called for openness and pride (page 202): "It is time to open the closet door and let in the fresh air… It is time to hold up your heads… confident of your equality… confident of the rightness of what you are and of the goodness of what you do… gay is good."
Lesbian and Gay Movement Organizations (1970s): These groups protested professional organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, challenging the pathologization of homosexuality.
DSM Change (1974): As a result of these protests and changing perspectives, homosexuality was officially dropped from the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM), the volume containing all recognized psychiatric disorders.
Conrad and Schneider's Analysis Mapping
Time Period: Pre-16^{th} century
Institution: Church
Homosexuality: Sin
Solution: Repentance
Time Period: 16^{th} to 18^{th} century
Institution: State
Homosexuality: Crime
Solution: Punishment
Time Period: 18^{th} to mid-20^{th} century
Institution: Medicine/Psychiatry
Homosexuality: Sickness/Disease
Solution: Therapy
Time Period: Mid-20^{th} century onwards
Institution: Pro-gay social movements
Homosexuality: Oppressed minority (natural variation)
Solution: Liberation