5 ms·

In fact, you claimed that many of the people diagnosed are actually fine. Please revise or walk back your statement if you want, but don't deny the plain meanin

by istjohn 10y ago

In fact, you claimed that many of the people diagnosed are actually fine. Please revise or walk back your statement if you want, but don't deny the plain meaning of your words.

contingencies 10y ago
I implied that perhaps their particular mental configurations, different as they are, should perhaps not be considered abnormal and in fact this is a false stigma of society. I did not imply any value judgement about their mental configurations.
- istjohn 10y ago
  Your attitude, were it to be adopted as conventional wisdom, would deprive huge numbers of people of medical treatment that dramatically improves their lives. Most DSM definitions stipulate something similar to: "There is clear evidence that the symptoms interfere with, or reduce the quality of, social, academic or occupational functioning". If people seek help for such conditions, they should have their concerns taken seriously and be provided the necessary treatment. It's not helpful to simply suggest perhaps it's natural for some people to be morbidly depressed or disconnected from reality.
  - contingencies 10y ago
    Not once did I suggest that people were not ill, merely that a society's consideration of a high proportion of its people as ill is a symptom of the society more than the individuals. The baseline assumption in your polemic that people should center their lives around "social, academic or occupational functioning" is actually highly offensive to some, including myself.
  - Grishnakh 10y ago
    It is perfectly natural. Try taking some social animal like a bonobo, and sticking it in a horrible cage in solitary confinement, and maybe poke it with a cattle prod now and then for extra measure. Do you think it's going to be a perfectly happy little ape? No, it's going to become morbidly depressed or disconnected from reality. There's nothing wrong with the bonobo; the problem is with his environment. The bonobo doesn't need anti-depressants, he needs to be put back into his healthy bonobo society in the forest and not kept in a cage and zapped with a cattle prod. Most mental health treatments are just band-aids, just like dosing a tortured ape on anti-depressants so he doesn't have to deal with the suffering he's being forced to endure.

by istjohn 10y ago

In fact, you claimed that many of the people diagnosed are actually fine. Please revise or walk back your statement if you want, but don't deny the plain meaning of your words.

contingencies 10y ago

I implied that perhaps their particular mental configurations, different as they are, should perhaps not be considered abnormal and in fact this is a false stigma of society. I did not imply any value judgement about their mental configurations.

istjohn 10y ago
Your attitude, were it to be adopted as conventional wisdom, would deprive huge numbers of people of medical treatment that dramatically improves their lives. Most DSM definitions stipulate something similar to: "There is clear evidence that the symptoms interfere with, or reduce the quality of, social, academic or occupational functioning". If people seek help for such conditions, they should have their concerns taken seriously and be provided the necessary treatment. It's not helpful to simply suggest perhaps it's natural for some people to be morbidly depressed or disconnected from reality.
- contingencies 10y ago
  Not once did I suggest that people were not ill, merely that a society's consideration of a high proportion of its people as ill is a symptom of the society more than the individuals. The baseline assumption in your polemic that people should center their lives around "social, academic or occupational functioning" is actually highly offensive to some, including myself.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  It is perfectly natural. Try taking some social animal like a bonobo, and sticking it in a horrible cage in solitary confinement, and maybe poke it with a cattle prod now and then for extra measure. Do you think it's going to be a perfectly happy little ape? No, it's going to become morbidly depressed or disconnected from reality. There's nothing wrong with the bonobo; the problem is with his environment. The bonobo doesn't need anti-depressants, he needs to be put back into his healthy bonobo society in the forest and not kept in a cage and zapped with a cattle prod. Most mental health treatments are just band-aids, just like dosing a tortured ape on anti-depressants so he doesn't have to deal with the suffering he's being forced to endure.