Through lecture, we talked through a brief history of the field of mental health. This highlighted both huge advancements in how we understand and treat people with mental health concerns, and the ways in which psychology and related fields have perpetuated much harm.

For your second discussion board assignment, pick one of the following sources to review the ways in which psychology has embedded racism or homophobia within how we understand mental illness.

Option 1: The American Psychological Association’s recently made a public apology to people of color for the role of psychology in promoting racism. To learn more about the history of racism within the field, skim this timeline of events (https://www.apa.org/about/apa/addressing-racism/historical-chronology), then read this news article summarizing parts of the apology and the criticisms of it https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/why-apa-s-apology-promoting-white-supremacy-falls-short-ncna1284229.

Option 2: Read this article summarizing the history of the inclusion of “homosexuality” in the DSM https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC46957… and/or listen to this podcast episode reviewing some of these major events in history: https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psyc… (however you learn best)

Then answer the following questions:

Identify at least one way in which bias showed up in mental health assessment or treatment with the community you read about. (.5 points)

What is one thing you learned in reading this article? What about this stands out to you? (.5 points)

What lesson(s) might future mental health professionals learn from this history? BE SPECIFIC HERE. A response like “we should treat everyone the same” is not sufficient to earn points here. What would that look like? What would need to change? HOW do we get there? (.5 points