Homosexual panic

Homosexual panic is a term coined by psychiatrist Edward J. Kempf in 1920 for a condition of "panic due to the pressure of uncontrollable perverse sexual cravings". Kempf classified this condition as an acute pernicious dissociative disorder, meaning that it involved a disruption in typical perception and memory functions of an individual. In the psychiatrist's honour, the condition has come to also be known as "Kempf's disease". It is no longer recognized by the DSM.

Kempf identified the condition after completing 19 case studies during and after World War I at St Elizabeths Hospital, a government mental institution in Washington, D.C. The case studies lasted months in some cases, and consisted of extensive unstructured patient interviews. Kempf would, over the course of multiple sessions, investigate the personal history of the patient and the events that led up to hospitalization in order to diagnose them with homosexual panic. Among the cases described by Kempf is a "physician ... who later became a brilliant philologist", born in Ceylon in 1834 to missionary parents, and graduating from Yale Medical School before serving as an army surgeon—an apparent reference to William Chester Minor.

The disorder was included in Appendix C of the DSM-I as a supplementary term, which are terms that may be added on to an existing diagnosis to further explain the patient's condition. In order for mental health professionals to apply a diagnosis to a patient, the diagnosis must appear in the current edition of the DSM. The disorder has not appeared in any subsequent editions of the DSM, and thus is not considered a diagnosable condition.

In his case studies, Kempf recorded a variety of symptoms that his patients presented with. Psychotic symptoms included hallucinations and delusions, especially those of persecution. Kempf cites Case PD-14, who insisted he had been framed for his behavior and accused his shipmates of conspiring to harm or kill him. Somatic symptoms were also common, including dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. In 1959, author Burton Glick documented mood-related symptoms, such as self-punishment, suicidal ideation, social withdrawal, and feelings of helplessness. Glick noted that patients appeared passive, and demonstrated an "inability to be aggressive". Ultimately, patients became "unable to function at all". Both Glick and Kempf emphasize their patients' lack of aggression towards homosexual individuals. In a study of college aged-men, Henry Harper Hall found that men who exhibited symptoms in line with homosexual panic never acted out towards homosexual individuals; instead, they blamed themselves for their own cravings. Kempf noted that the difference between patients who fared well after their diagnoses and those who did not was the patient's successful "transference" of such homosexual cravings. If a patient was able to transfer these impulses towards another, more socially appropriate target, the patient would begin to feel less inferior and would thus recover.

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