‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’: LGB invisibility and heterosexism in clinical psychology textbooks

Abstract

This paper reports a qualitative, hermeneutically informed, analysis of three clinical psychology textbooks published in North America and used in postgraduate psychology programmes in California universities. These texts are viewed as cultural products reflecting the intersection between homosexuality and psychology in Western culture. The impact on the reader/clinician of explicit, implicit, and excluded material about lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people is considered. We conclude that, mainly by excluding LGB content, but also by occasionally presenting problematic constructions of LGB people, these textbooks express a contradiction: professional psychology in the US espouses pro-LGB ethics and advocacy, yet it co-operates with anti-LGB cultural, economic, and political forces. Possible reasons for this are considered. Educators and students are urged to take a leading role in confronting the heterosexism of textbooks, through teaching and learning how to question cultural bias.