Sex-role reversal and clinical judgment of mental health

The separation between nonconformist lifestyles and mental disorders plays a central role in behavioral therapeutic orientations, where emphasis is put on the client's definition of the problem, and in existential and humanistic orientations, which encourage the development of the client's individuality. In the present study, 621 psychotherapists and students intending to practice psychotherapy ranked the mental state of a male client suffering from social phobia related to examination situations. Half of the subjects received a case history of a law intern (married to a teacher), suffering from social phobia related to the oral bar. The other half received a case history of a student in a teachers' college (married to a lawyer) suffering from social phobia related to being tested in teaching a class. The mental state of the latter has been perceived as significantly more severe than that of the former. This difference in perception was not related to the subject's sex, professional experience, and the frequency of a similar client in their practice. Results are discussed in the context of the liberal political attitudes and the secular orientation of the subjects.