The Product Conversion—from Heresy to Illness

The most prejudiced must admit that this religion without theology [positivism] is not chaigeable with relaxation of mor restraints. On the contrary, it prodigiously exaggerates them. 

The change from a religious and moral to a social and medical conceptualization and control of personal conduct affects the entire discipline of psychiatry and allied fields. Perhaps nowhere is this transformation more evident than in the modern perspective on so-called sexual deviation, and especially on homosexuality. We shall therefore compare the concept of homosexuality as heresy, 

As this suggests, homosexuality was considered a serious offense. This story also makes clear the abysmal devaluation of women as human beings in the ethics of ancient J udaism. Lot values the dignity of his male guests more highly than that of his female children. The Christian ethic did not raise the worth of female life much above the Jewish nor did the clinical ethic raise it much above the clerical. This is why most of those identified as witches by male inquisitors were women and why most of those diagnosed as hysterics by male psychiatrists were also women. 

Homosexuality is again prohibited in Leviticus. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman it is an abomination. Adultery, incest, and bestiality are also forbidden. The punishment for transgression is death If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.  

It is important to note that only male homosexuality is forbidden You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. . . God addresses males only. He does not command woman not to lie with a female as with a man. Here by omission and implication, and elsewhere by more explicit phrasing, woman is treated as a kind of human animal, not as a full human being. The most up-to-date legal statutes of Western nations dealing with homosexuality continue 

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