**This definition is subjective and is based on what society defines as accepted, and this cultural value changes over time.** - Cultural values develop not through the implementation of scientific methods but through numerous informal conversations and negotiations among the people and institutions of that culture. Social norms differ from one culture to another, and therefore what is psychologically abnormal in one culture may not be so in another (see Lopez & Guarnaccia, this volume). Also, norms of a given culture change over time; therefore, conceptions of psychopathology will change over time, often very dramatically, as evidenced by American society’s changes over the past several decades in attitudes toward sex, race, and gender. For example, psychiatrists in the 1800s classified masturbation, especially in children and women, as a disease, and it was treated in some cases by clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoris), which Western society today would consider barbaric (Reznek, 1987). Homosexuality was an official mental disorder in the _DSM_ until 1973 (see also Gosselin, this volume).