LGBT Psychosocial Theory and Practice in the UK: A Review of Key Contributions and Current Developments

SUMMARY

This paper outlines the recent history of LGBT psychology and psychotherapy in the United Kingdom, focusing on key publications,¹ and the current terrain, highlighting similarities and differences between the UK and the US contexts.² The paper is divided into four sections: the first focuses on the early development of the field in the late 1960s. The second section explores the 1980s–a decade that witnessed the publication of two key texts that had a strong influence on the development of the field and, in particular, on the development of critical and discursive approaches. The third section details the rapid changes that occurred in the 1990s including the establishment of a Lesbian and Gay Psychology Section within the British Psychological Society. The final section considers the current terrain and the similarities and differences in the theoretical commitments of researchers and practitioners working in the UK and in the US.

KEYWORDS:

• Bisexual
• critical psychology
• gay
• history
• homosexuality
• Hopkins
• Kitzinger
• lesbian
• LGBT psychology
• LGBT psychotherapy
• Richardson and Hart
• social constructionism
• United Kingdom