People debate whether homosexuality is a biological predisposition or a lifestyle choice, but would anyone argue it’s a mental illness?

As recently as 1993, a survey found that 43% of people believe that people bring mental disorders on themselves and 35% believe that sinful behavior causes mental illness (Comer, 1995). These beliefs are consistent with some horrific historical trends in treatment of mental illness.              Ancient societies drilled holes in people’s skulls to let the evil spirits out. The Greeks and Romans sought balance between four bodily fluids and thought changes in diet, activity level, sexual activity, or physically removing bodily fluids through bleeding would cure the illness.  Exorcisms were used in the Middle Ages to rid the body of the devil which had taken possession of it. During the Renaissance, restraint and isolation were used in insane asylums to help the sufferer and to protect society from people they feared dangerous.             At that time masturbation was seen as a cause for mental illness because asylum inmates were seen masturbating. (Of course, people were watching everything the people in asylums did, which is why they saw them masturbating.)             A movement toward treatment guided by morality and humane intervention took root in the middle of the 18th century, but fell out of favor when moral treatment failed to heal many patients.

"The Ridges," formerly known as Athens [Ohio] Lunatic Asylum