It is socially less divisive, and accurate, to describe people who have mental health problems, such as so-called clinical depression or bipolar disorder, as nutcases or crazies, etc. I always do.
Here is the philosophy of mental health - it is a category that stigmatises. Get rid of it. The stigma of mental illness is hard to combat because mental illness IS itself a deliberately created stigma. Better to be philosophically honest and use the term that mental illness is a metaphor for - nutcase, crazy.
To describe our inner life or personhood (or soul or centre if you like) as illness or “healthy” is to socially disenfranchise that personhood by relegating it to the non-social realm of a fleshy machine.
That is why it is better to say that someone who is supposedly clinically depressed, or has some other clinical myth, is crazy. For “mental health/illness” stigmatises a person by saying that personhood, right down to its soul or centre, isn’t that of a person, but is that of a machine that can be tinkered with by clinicians.
yeah, it isn’t really apt to describe clinical depression as an “illness”, it’s more like a chronic malfunction - i definitely prefer the term “crazy” to describe myself, rather than “mentally ill”. depression is less a question of health, and more a question of personality - i think “crazy” captures that particular nuance far better than a term like “mentally ill”.
“nutcase” i don’t know about, tho - a little too derogatory . . .
This is well thought. A major problem in society is the way the mental health system acts as a metaphorical stop sign on natural behaviors that would actually improve life. It keeps in place a very dysfunctional mindset and system, and mechanism is definitely a factor there. No, people are not machines; and depression is a reaction to abuse and oppression. Get rid of the abuse and oppression, and the depression will lift. But the system in place treats people as “abnormal” and drugs them or institutionalizes them. This does keep them stuck in a neverending feedback cycle where nothing gets solved for them, but the actually abnormal society and its inmates can continue running the asylum.
I’ve always found it interesting that we love to say that other people are stupid, unless their IQ happens to cross below a certain threshold, at which point we suddenly find it in ourselves to exercise some compassion. On the other hand, we now look at these people as not part of normal society. We feel compassion for them, because we think of them as not quite human in a sense. Everything is a double edged sword.
Mentally ill is a very apt term. Being crazy is not conducive to good health of the mind, as it is dangerous to oneself. To see things that aren’t there and to hear things that aren’t there could lead someone to do some very “unhealthy” things to oneself. Depression is unhealthy to onself as well as it can lead to suicide. Now that is not conducive to good health is it, death? Hurting oneself even? Being untidy, dirty or uncaring of ones home is very often a case of depression and that too is unhealthy. I see very valid reasons to utilize the term mentally ill. The stigma did not arise out of this term, the stigma existed long before this term came about. The words like nutcases are derogatory. Mentally ill is not so much. If anything its meaning utilizes what is actually occurring in a non discriminatory term. Nut case is very negative and leads to discriminatory thought.
Key terms defined:
Definition of ILLNESS
1
obsolete a : wickedness b : unpleasantness
2
a : an unhealthy condition of body or mind b : sickness 2
See illness defined for English-language learners »
Definition of UNHEALTHY
1
: not conducive to health
2
: not in good health : sickly, diseased
3
angry makes some pretty good points. i always refer to someones illness as -------------a person with this illness. like this is jill who has schizophrenia. not jill is a schizophrenic.
Not only that, but all the labels are spurious. A “schizophrenic” in one society might be a greater shaman in another. Notice that the mindset of the doctor and the medicine itself determines the so-called “illness.” What we actually have is a very sick society unable to treat itself. Until society and the mental assumptions that underlie it change, then the mental health system will continue mistreating people in order to keep them in line.
What do you mean by mistreating? Misdiagnosing? A pill for depression probably isn’t going to fix it, although it could. At least it is an attempt to do so, as it could be a biological chemical imbalance, not so much a result of ones environment. Psychologists attempt to work with the depressed but this is not something easy to do. How would you suggest the mental health system improve their mistreatment? Pills do work, but everyone reacts differently. There is a combination of medicine as well as support groups and therapy. Some may not take medicine, some may not take therapy. Some may do both. Ultimately it is their decision. I will grant that pills are pushed often and that maybe therapy or counseling may be increased, but medicine is effective at least short term. Regardless, I’m not aware of anyone who is on anti depressants for life.
Schizophrenia is a different story, what is the gripe there?
I see no validity in the idea that the human body will perfectly administer dopamine as it is supposed to and will only decrease when the mind is unhappy due to experience. Murphy’s Law. The biological body is far from perfect in every manner.
we really dont know much about the causes of mind-brain disorders. there is one psychotic disorder that we know all about and can prevent it and cure it.