Every science made some big mistakes in the 19th century, if it's any consolation.
Victorian society was on the whole very prudish, but surely psychology had a hand in the development of the idea of homosexuality as "a thing that some people are" rather than as a hedonistic excess that some people get up to. And as I write this it occurs to me that they were right about that at least; but psychology at the time was also, as a branch of medicine, concerned with making people "normal" and society wasn't ready to accept the normality of men being sexually attracted to other men, until Kinsey et al.
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Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 16:51,
Reply)
It might be a case of arguing for a distinction between prudish and suppressed.
With suppressed indicating it was present. Definitately some Victorian jazz mag equivalents with decidedly homosexual content. So present within a subculture and suppressed in the mainstream.
I think you can make the case for Psychology developing the concept of homosexuality but I think that development was limited in comparison with what already existed. Might be one of those agree to disagree areas. Though obviously I strenuously disagree with the original statement re: homophobia ;)
(, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 17:24, Reply)