Herapy Therapy Everywherapy

Social Forums Non-Philosophical Chat
1

very so often a word dies. Like “handicapped.” Or “negro,” and they become replaced with not merely euphamisms, but words that are more accurate, such as “differently abled” and “African.”

These word choices say something about how we see a trait, and usually what it says is we’ve grown up and we see it in a better, more hopeful and open light. Less restrictive value judgment, more neutrality with room for growth.

I once wrote here that the word gifted is ready to die. Intelligence and talent is not a gift. A gift is a present, that someone gives to you because you deserve it, it’s your birthday or they like you whatever.

Therapy is a dead word, should be. It should be changed to “training.”

Physical training. Occupational training. Therapy refers to a curing of a disease. Being born weak and clumsy (and gorgeous) like my daughter, is not a disease. It is a trait.

2

I have to say, I’m not so old to not be offended at your usage of ‘weak’ and ‘clumsy’ here. We feebs prefer to be called ‘differently coordinated’, and yes, I am making fun.

3

You’re right. So to be consistent, I have no problem calling weak and clumsy “differently coordinated,” I really don’t.

The point is “she can not do the thing she wants to do, so she will train until she can,” versus “she is sick and needs to be cured.”

My point is about therapy. My daughter does not have any known disease, but she has low tone, which is a condition that can’t be cured. She needed to train her muscles for speech and fine motor skills. She underwent therapy, but I think of it as training, and I think if you just called it speech training, that would harm nothing, achieve the same results, and be a lot less “therapeutic” sounding, since there’s no disease, per se, involved.

4

e.i.e.i.-o.

-Imp

5

Therapy, in the more strict sense, means to attend to, as coming from the Greek for attendant.

The real point is, who cares. Words won’t change your daughter’s condition/dysfunction. Neither will relabeling her/her state, to appease your conscience.

6

My aunt has repeatedly said that if she loses the use of her legs, she will insist on being called ‘crippled’. I’d have to agree with her.

7

…i hate political correctness with such a passion…

i see your point though. certain words do not begin to capture their implied meanings and probably should not be used. as for other forms of political correctness, such as saying “african american” instead of “black”, i don’t understand. by calling someone african american you assume that they are 1)african and 2)american, right?

8

Yeah, and by saying “black” you assume they are black, right ? Which they aren’t. They come in different tones of brown (or is it chestnut ?), and it’s even questionable who is this “they”. It is more correct to say that they are epidermically differentiated, or something. Or that the light reflected by their corporeal presence has a certain wave-length, which can be expressed numerically. I wouldn’t mind if races would be named by numbers, say 964B00.

The point is that trying to be more accurate in defining everyday realities is essentially a good thing, but it tends to become ridiculous if it is overstated. But it’s essentially a good thing.

9

1846, “medical treatment of disease,” from Mod.L. therapia, from Gk. therapeia “curing, healing,” from therapeuein “to cure, treat.”

Do you think I am politically correct? Far from it. My only interest is in clarity and reducing value judgments and keeping a term pure as possible. Gifted is inferior a term to able at x or intelligent in x area. Therapy is inferior to training.

10

Old Greek: theraps: attendant>Latter Greek: therapeuein: to attend to, treat (it is questionable that the “treat” reference is medical in nature, more in the nature of stewardship).

Value judgements will be passed, regardless. Confounding the language to appease a conscience is a waste of effort. The words won’t change the intent or nature of the human animal.

11

Mastriani, you are taking the simplest “Model Un young republican freshman year rebuttal” possible. I don’t argue that we should change something to merely appease the conscience, or that it would change the human animal or even his intent.

Sometimes changing a term makes it less clear and is a lie to make us feel good.

Othwer times the original word was the lie, used to either control, or more likely, to express a value judgment as opposed to a pure fact. As value judgments change, so must words, if we are to avoid perpetuating old, irrelevant value judgments.

Do you think prostitution is bad? I personally don’t. Whore sounds bad, so let’s not call them whores, even though that’s what they are, “whore” says more than protitute - it says dirty prostitute.

Same with nigger. It means “of African descent” but says more than that, and what it says is not only bad, but false (my biggest issue with old words). So we don’t say nigger.

To me, therapy carries the idea of “sick,” but today very healthy people undergo psychotherapy as a luxury - like a massage, or a hobby for personal growth. And if you’re fat and unflexible trying to improve yourself with yoga, is that growth or therapy? The car accident was the life choice of sloth and lack of fitness, the genetic or emotional “disease” was the tendency for weight gain, or liking food and tv. Everything is therapy, or maybe nothing is.

Therapy means growth. My argument is more sound when i add that this is true especially when there is no categorizable disease or syndrome that warranted the growth - such as benign congenital hypotonia. I am not trying to candy coat my daughter’s situation, but even if I were, so what? You’re not only wrong, but you have revealed yourself as something of an insensitive guy. Congrats.

12

Mas, I think Gamer is just trying to say that words can and do produce a stigma and that it is expressed externally and all too often, accepted internally to the detriment of the named. While I agree with you that words are meaningless, the perceptions constructed from words is not, and perception is reality. There is nothing wrong with using words that are a more accurate description of that which is named, and finding precision of description is something valuable no matter the naming.

You aren’t a wop Mas, you’re an American of Italian descent.

At the same time, calling a prostitute a “sex industry worker” is a little over the PC top… :unamused:

Gamer, I didn’t mean to put words in your mouth. Please correct my feeble understanding where necessary.

13

Gamer,

You can hurl the “insensitive” mash, all you choose. I care not.

I have a child who has undergone therapy for the past decade, and heard all the PC bullshit I can stomach. (Not to mention all the bullshit I’ve heard because he is an “African American child being raised by Whites”)

My point is real simple, and it’s the same one I have made a daily reminder of to the boy himself:

If you are truly an individual minded being, then the words and the perceptions of others, bear no value. Walk your own path, or be silent about the travesty of being part of the herd.

I never claimed anywhere, at any time, to be other than an asshole … it’s just my nature. :evilfun:

14

I must agree–I can’t stomach the pc mentality. Besides, what point is there in being overly conscious of words when for the most part we walk around treating eachother like crap? Kindness /respect for humanity is what is needed not arbitrary egg shells to walk on.

I don’t understand our use of the term African American–isn’t that really just another way of singling someone out purely for their skin tone? Shouldn’t the point be to see people as people, not specialized variations of a certain kind of person??

15

Ding, ding, ding!!!

We have a winna!!!

Someone finally understood the big, insensitive asshole Mastriani.

Congratulations, you win a Happy Meal, but due to corporate cutbacks, we’re keeping the toy, and taxing you on the whole set anyways.

16

Wrong. I am the offspring of WOP’s, real deal dago, authentic Sicilian prick.

I live in America, default condition.

17

I don’t like the term insensitive asshole. I prefer emotionally challenged :laughing:

18

Actually, I prefer to be called a whore.

Whores are paid. Sluts are only looking for extra notches to put in their belts.

19

That’s a little circular, isn’t it?

A good way to understand people or at least be in a position to evaluate them is to examine their effects, if you will, their “work” in the world and their capacity to produce it. Nonetheless there can be no racial discriminations unless one race can be proven better than another; this matter is troublesome and can lead to, or from rather, biased science, I guess you might call it.

What we can do however is examine humankind culturally and maybe determine what cultural aspects of a people are “negative” and which are “positive.” The standard, of course, is up for debate, but I’d say that if it doesn’t start with one’s “work,” then it will certainly end there, no matter how you approach it.

I do not believe ethics can be understood outside of the economic conditions in the society which produces those moral people. This lets me judge a culture, or class, outside of its historical/linguistic circumstances; there are no such things as metaphors which do not discriminate against another, so value is not a matter of ethics, but economics. With this I’m saying, for instance, that you cannot describe “good” people without employing a metaphysical allegory of metaphor-- he is loving, trustworthy, loyal, etc., etc.-- but you can say that person X plowed three acres of field in one hour, ate six burritos, produced Y amount of waste, so on and so forth.

My problem with philosophy, or greekish-speakish, is that it often fails to remain the difference between atomic fact and evaluations. The former is not a matter of subjectivity, the latter most certainly is. I think Frank Zappa is the greatest composer of the twentieth century, and you I would wager do not.

“It is not things, but opinions about things that have so far deranged mankind!”

Something along those lines, spoke one Friedrich Nietzsche.

20

Not entirely sure I get the point you’re trying to make here–it seems as though you have gone into a discussion on culture as a determining factor in ethics. I was referring to language.