[1] Kempf classified this condition as an acute pernicious dissociative disorder, meaning that it involved a disruption in typical perception and memory functions of an individual.
Kempf cites Case PD-14, who insisted he had been framed for his behavior and accused his shipmates of conspiring to harm or kill him.
[1] In 1959, author Burton Glick documented mood-related symptoms, such as self-punishment, suicidal ideation, social withdrawal, and feelings of helplessness.
[1] Spending copious amounts of time with members of the same sex in a confined or limited atmosphere was cited by Kempf as a possible reason for the onset of the disease.
Kempf asserted that individuals in these environments who had recently or were currently undergoing stress (due to fatigue, sickness, loss of a love interest, etc.)
According to the Freudian theory of psychoanalysis, the ego is the part of an individual's mind that mediates between the primitive unconscious and reality.
Kempf would, over the course of multiple sessions, investigate the personal history of the patient and the events that led up to hospitalization in order to diagnose them with homosexual panic.
[1] Among the cases described by Kempf is a "physician ... who later became a brilliant philologist",[1]: 506 born in Ceylon in 1834 to missionary parents, and graduating from Yale Medical School before serving as an army surgeon[1]: 450–451 —an apparent reference to William Chester Minor.
[9] Although homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973, the retaining of "sexual orientation disturbance" as a mental disorder lead to legal protection of discrimination.
Whereas homosexual panic disorder was at one point considered a diagnosable medical condition, the HPD implies only a temporary loss of self-control.