6 ms·
The whole article is worth reading. It's a tortured history of the failures of psychiatry, least of which is the DSM and worst of which is mass incarceration of
by carabiner 4y ago
The whole article is worth reading. It's a tortured history of the failures of psychiatry, least of which is the DSM and worst of which is mass incarceration of blacks engaged in activism due to "schizophrenia," similar to how homosexuality was once considered mental illness. It ends too early with:
> "The fact is, if we didn’t have such a fucked-up society, I’d be out of a job." ... As historian Joanna Radin encouraged me to discuss in my undergraduate course on the History of Drugs, the question is not only, What is the right drug for me?, but also: What would the world have to look like for me not to need drugs at all?
He stops short of really exploring this concept. I'll paraphrase an old comment of mine:
Are you ready for me to diagnose your totally normal reaction to our shitty society as mental illness so I can get you addicted to mind altering drugs for the rest of your life? https://imgur.com/Jb1mJyx https://imgur.com/Jb1mJyx
Or as the social critic Dr. Ted Kaczynski said, "Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction? It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable."
The problem is, this is the only life most of us have lived, and so we cannot imagine it otherwise, like a fish who cannot conceive of a world without water, or even that water is the medium surrounding it. If our entire society is causing this, then what can we do? Wage slavery, oligarchy, attention theft by tech companies, disintegration of community from various causes. Life for so many people is crawling through glass Monday through Friday, then getting shitfaced on the weekend. Is that happiness?
- automatic6131 4y agoIt's so easy to call this society "shitty" and "sick". It's much harder to articulate what it should be - and how it should be. Oh I know you can give a wishlist of things you want society to be; I bet you can't even begin to describe how you achieve it. No one ever does. The only method ever given is "revolution and then New Soviet Man". Every method is a restatement of those six words in longer format.
- nyanpasu64 4y agoTed Kaczynski had an infamous description of his ideal society, and from a quick glance (I didn't fully read) he seems much more of a primitivist than a socialist.
- dunnodidntneed 4y agoTO pick only: 'Form on the Day', well doesn't that sound real, realy Mood-controlled ? So IF there are 'high-ends' in 'mood' THAN picking up a receptor-blocker to diddn't let those ('overwhelming' neuro-transmitter) be a part of the unwanted chemistry docking, cos ... hu you know... 'it may be NOT favorable FOR others' -so what's the thing ? That modern psychiatry went from behavior-analysis of criminals, scum and murder to a broader market of salesman... um that maybe is more in touch with the main story behind psychiatrists and 'illness-management'... ? Sry, non native english speaker... but a broader view... ^^
- narrator 4y agoYeah, it seems like everything these days is about figuring out how to get everyone motivated to have a revolution. We probably already hit peak civilization at some point over the last 20 years and this revolution stuff is just speeding up the downslope off of that.
- 4y ago
- iamevn 4y agoTed Kaczynski like the Unabomber?
- j-bos 4y agoHe was a well educated terrorist.
- serf 4y ago>Or as the social critic Dr. Ted Kaczynski said, yknow , I agree with your broad points -- I even agree with the sarcastic tone you used to convey the line, but the families of those murdered or injured by Ted Kaczynski would probably prefer the title murderer/arsonist/terrorist.. even inmate. Most folks would probably prefer that the most infamous title be used when speaking about those that society has deemed to be of ill repute. 'Spiritualist Genghis Khan' sounds weird. So does 'music aficionado and critic Charles Manson'. It's a grim take, but the condemnation offered by the legal process is one of the things that helps the victims of a crime cope. In other words, the social branding of 'murderer' or 'convict' onto the person charged with the crime is also part of the justice offered to the victims via the legal system -- to ignore that the social title and distinction of the person has been affected by their transition to 'convict' status is to ignore a facet of what the prosecution was attempting to achieve for the sake of the victims.
- tsol 4y agoThis is a good explanation of what I felt was off about that wording
- dEnigma 4y agoPostcard artist and hobby architect Adolf Hitler
- soledades 4y agoI think that the branding of the UNABOMBER as a "bad guy" is pretty secure at this point. > to ignore that the social title and distinction of the person has been affected by their transition to 'convict' status is to ignore a facet of what the prosecution was attempting to achieve for the sake of the victims. why on earth should that take precedence over everything else?
- Bakary 4y agoWhy can't we just skip the virtue signaling and just discuss the ideas presented? Absolutely none of the discussion we have here is going to affect the societal process of justice as described.
- creata 4y agoDo most people even take psychiatric medication for "the rest of their life"? I thought that most people who take psychiatric medications take them for a few years, but I don't have the stats on that. > Or as the social critic Dr. Ted Kaczynski Whose doctorate is in mathematics.
- EdwardDiego 4y agoWell, Ted Kaczynski is certainly someone we should emulate right? Go live in a cabin in the woods, and send bombs in the mail to people, sounds like the epitome of great mental health.
- jerojero 4y agoSomeone might have a good analysis of the problem but being incapable of coming up with an appropriate solution to it. These are definitely two different skillsets. Imo a lot of what Kaczynski says is actually very well thought out and there are multiple other philosophers and thinkers that have come to similar conclusions or have pointed similar problems with society. If you had read that statement without reading who it was that said it, what would you have thought about it?
- EdwardDiego 4y agoFair. If I'd read that without the ascription, I would've considered it to be an overly simplistic view of things, that was probably influenced by Bill Hicks' comedy/social commentary [0]. Reducing the multiple potential causes of depression to "society is bad" does a dramatic disservice to people who suffer it. [0]: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/586570-there-are-essentially-only-two-drugs-that-western-civilization-tolerates https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/586570-there-are-essentiall...