Abstract

TELLEZ VEGA, Fernanda. Discursive representation of homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1995 revision). Cuad. linguist. hisp. [online]. 2015, n.25, pp.143-162. ISSN 0121-053X.

This article highlights the discursive construction and significance of homosexuality in the DSM IV system (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), understanding that the meaning referring to the internal contents of the discourse and signification concerns the external (visible) contents. The research method focuses on content analysis: discussion, critique and description of the manual's constructive methodology. The content analysis technique was applied; including identification of the dominant discourse and style. The results evidence that the dominant discursive shape is institutional regarding the non-discursive forms (sexuālis diversus). No changes in the psychiatric discourse are evidenced, because of its circular feedback construction method; in other words, somewhere in the process, homosexuality will be considered as a disorder or as a topic of psychiatric revision. The research reveals that the DSM IV system adjusts to the power-knowledge discursive construction widely documented by Foucault, in which the dominant discourse exerts power over the sexuālis diversus, defining them in an exercise of knowledge and registering them in a diagnostic manual.

Keywords : homosexuality; sexuālis diversus; diagnostic manual; critical discourse analysis; content analysis; discursive construction.

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