Please note: This website is no longer updated.For more current information, please consult the relevant research, legal, and policy literatures.
Changing Our Minds
Changing Our Minds tells the story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker, a psychologist whose groundbreaking research eventually led the American Psychiatric Association to eliminate "homosexuality" from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders in 1973.
Dr. Hooker's work began when a gay man, who attended one of her psychology classes at UCLA, persuaded her to study homosexuals. Her research indicated that homosexuals scored little differently on the intelligence and sanity tests from heterosexuals. These findings challenged the psychiatric community's understanding of homosexuality as a mental illness. For years, the belief that homosexuality was a mental illness had led to the use of primitive "treatments" involving electroshock therapy, lobotomies, estrogen/testosterone injections, hysterectomies, and castrations.
Haugland and his director, Richard Schmiechen, scoured through medical libraries and gay and lesbian archives for segments for the film. The film, narrated by Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: the Next Generation), powerfully chronicles the history of Dr. Hooker's efforts and also includes archival footage of these primitive treatments for this "alleged" mental illness.
Changing our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker was nominated for a 1992 Academy award as best Feature documentary, and won awards in Australia, Europe, and the U.S.
The Clarke Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Issues
Dickinson College * P.O. Box 1773 * Carlisle, Pa. * 17013-2896 * 717.245.1875
Changing Our Minds
Please note: This website is no longer updated.For more current information, please consult the relevant research, legal, and policy literatures.
Changing Our Minds
Changing Our Minds tells the story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker, a psychologist whose groundbreaking research eventually led the American Psychiatric Association to eliminate "homosexuality" from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders in 1973.
Dr. Hooker's work began when a gay man, who attended one of her psychology classes at UCLA, persuaded her to study homosexuals. Her research indicated that homosexuals scored little differently on the intelligence and sanity tests from heterosexuals. These findings challenged the psychiatric community's understanding of homosexuality as a mental illness. For years, the belief that homosexuality was a mental illness had led to the use of primitive "treatments" involving electroshock therapy, lobotomies, estrogen/testosterone injections, hysterectomies, and castrations.
Haugland and his director, Richard Schmiechen, scoured through medical libraries and gay and lesbian archives for segments for the film. The film, narrated by Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: the Next Generation), powerfully chronicles the history of Dr. Hooker's efforts and also includes archival footage of these primitive treatments for this "alleged" mental illness.
Changing our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker was nominated for a 1992 Academy award as best Feature documentary, and won awards in Australia, Europe, and the U.S.
The Clarke Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Issues
Dickinson College * P.O. Box 1773 * Carlisle, Pa. * 17013-2896 * 717.245.1875