Language of Mental Illness “Others” People: It’s a Human Rights Violation

Monica Cassani
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To separate out the sensitive and call them mentally ill is yet another disservice and retraumatization to our most sensitive citizens. Seriously. We need to cut it out.

Becoming conscious is risky business.

The language of mental illness “others” people and is a human rights violation committed mindlessly by our entire culture. Forced treatment is the most obvious violence against us but microaggressions happen daily everywhere.

When separation and microaggressions are legitimized and put into public policy and discourse the way it’s been done, we become second class citizens and subhumans — and it’s all very acceptable as far as most are concerned.

This is an energetic reality whether people are aware of it or not. This is oppression and bigotry systemically supported and then denied by almost everyone, including those most seriously affected. We internalize it and come to believe these lies.

Just like racism and yet, it’s not recognized yet (not widely… certainly there are those who fight for broad systemic change who do get it, but we are a tiny minority at this point).

“Mentally ill” is a slur for those with the greatest sensitivities to the harmful conditioning we all face and are subject to. We might say that Everyone is Mentally Ill and that some of us who are labeled as such and thus ostracized by these labels are actually the least in denial about what is happening to us and to our planet.

So yes, those of us labeled mentally ill are often closer to sanity than most of society. Language matters here and calling the most vulnerable among us mentally ill as though everyone isn’t seriously affected is a form of doublespeak. Very 1984. A manipulation that helps people remain deep in denial so that we can keep on committing atrocities against one another and the planet. Everyone is Mentally Ill (yes, conditioned to the point of soul-loss) in this society, and those of us labeled are often far less so even though many of us may not yet be aware of this reality. See also: The Purpose of Life and the Human Conditioning.

“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a sick society.” Krishnamurti

I get that it’s useful to use the language of illness for folks who attach to the illness construct as well so that we might communicate and reach out to everyone. It remains all the more important to look at and be explicit about how language is used, and to clarify what we mean if we do use such language on occasion for the sake of communicating with those who might not otherwise hear us if we didn’t use such language as a bridge.

“Illness” used in a clinical sense within psychiatry and the establishment is often used to oppress and keep down and disenfranchise armies of sensitives (our most vulnerable and gifted members of society — healers, indeed). We need these folks fit and healthy in order to heal the world.

Wake up.

People can heal the sensitivity to become what gets called psychotic by becoming AWARE… that is a growth and maturation process. When one matures enough to become an observer of their thoughts and become discerning about the content of their thoughts, psychosis pretty much goes away… clarity ensues. We see that we were always closer to the truth. Paradox is the nature of truth.

Psychosis is, among (many) other things, also, quite often, a deep attachment to one’s (not consensually reasonable) thoughts and beliefs. To be clear and to restate in another way what has been said above, most of what is consensually and widely believed in society and the mainstream is also delusional. It’s just generally accepted. R.D Laing has much to say about the “normal” human being. Let’s just say that real clarity and lucidity is not normal.

All human beings can become what gets labeled psychotic under the right (or wrong) circumstances… and as stated above it can be argued that consensual psychosis is the status quo.

Strengthening the health of the body helps clarity and growth too. As holistic beings it all matters… everything. For those labeled and for those not labeled too. We all need healing.

The maturation and healing process happens naturally… and can be aided and supported by many different things. Let us become a society of people who support the kaleidoscopic needs of every individual in our amazing and diverse human family.

38 COMMENTS

    • Many people think people with mental illness are violent and dangerous. This is not the case, with help from Heavenly Father and support of love ones this can be managed. Media is partly to be blamed whenever a person commits crime and they found out the person has mental illness, they automatically put it down to his mental state which gives bad reputation to people with this condition. Myself I have never committed a crime nor am I violent . I am genuinely a kind guy with a heart of gold who just wants to have a voice . I never was given the opportunity to go back to school due to raymond west wind school division and there choices. I am smart , I have inherited gifts and abilities from god. I am not going to let the system dictate me! I am a leader and I am child of god with Divine potential .

    • Monica. in response to your sign off,
      and disabling dialogue with you of your latest contribution, “I love you too”

      Who was it that said, “there is nothing to fear, but fear itself?”
      How is the habit, or choice of ‘doing fear,’ useful, except in
      pretending to take care of ourselves,
      by self limiting ourselves, with such a choice/habit? 🙂

      Can I invite you to reflect and continue growing your ability to trust,
      and accept yourself, and the relative meaninglessness of what others might say, do or believe for themselves? (over you, and your ability to choose for you?)

    • Not psychosis going away. Learning to not let it rule your life? Yes, that has been done as well. Not within the context of “the system”, but it has been done outside of it. Beyond the “help” that is seen as acceptable (primarily medications) even when it isn’t truly helpful. There are research studies that demonstrate the use of anti-psychotics actually increase the likely hood of contending with further bouts of disabling “symptoms”. I have known many first hand that have actually experience hallucination induced by the anti-psychotic they were prescribed never having previously experienced them. This would lend credence to that idea.

      Because the diagnostic process is wrought with subjective criteria, it is likely that in a significant number of cases the diagnosis wasn’t correct to begin with. Flashbacks are often misdiagnosed as psychosis, even though they truly aren’t in any lasting sense. They certainly aren’t schizophrenia. This confuses the issue but there are points worth thinking about.

      I’m glad you stated they you have a mental health challenge. Challenge eludes to struggling with something for the sake of resolution. It is much different than stating “I am mentally ill”. It leaves room to redefine yourself at any time. My best to you.

  3. Monica

    Great message!

    “… consensual psychosis is the status quo…”

    Brilliant deconstruction of accepted thinking. I will definitely make use of that catch phrase in the future. Trump’s speech at the UN immediately comes to mind, and all those who would accept even a sliver of what he is putting forward, is simply shear insanity at best.

    His ultra nationalism (Fascism) is the the personification of “me first” in a profit based society that turns everything and everyone into a “commodity” to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. To accept all this, while almost half of humanity does not exactly know where their next meal is coming from, sets the tone and traumatic reality that millions of people face on this planet.

    “Mental illness” is their way of obscuring an oppressive reality and then blame the victims.

    Richard

    • so glad you liked it Richard. Yes, Trump makes it all very obvious…we need to be aware of how consensual psychosis affects all of us all the time, however…and that, IMO is what waking up and coming to responsible consciousness is all about. the only way we might save the planet and all of animal life is to do that.

      • America is giving people with disabilities a monthly check which is a lot more than most countries do and it’s obvious many people are scamming our system to receive disability.

        Think about that before you unjustly come to conclusions about how things run in America.

        One major reason foreign born nationals strive to come to America. Another example of white privilege coming from Monica and Richard who are supposedly people who counter white privilege.

        • You’re not making sense, Pat. What does a critique of psychiatry have to do with “white privilege?” And why would the fact that some people scam the system mean that the system is working fine? People scam ANY system. The question is whether or not people on the average are getting better with the current model, and the answer appears to be no. Have you even READ “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” the basis for this website? Please answer this question – failure to do so will terminally undermine what credibility you currently maintain.

  4. Remember desensitivity training? Yep, perhaps folks could use a little more sensitivity training instead.

    “We might say that Everyone is Mentally Ill”…or, my preference, that Nobody is Mentally Ill. Mental coupled with Illness is an abstraction, and an oxymoron, if all Illness, properly speaking, is Physical.

    Of course, saying that Nobody is Mentally Ill doesn’t solve the problem of certain people who say that certain other people are Mentally Ill. I guess that’s one we will have to keep working on.

    If anybody doesn’t think all people capable of displaying behaviors characterized as “psychotic”, I could suggest a strict regimen of torture, I think, to function as remedy for such–I don’t know–Is it “sanity” or “insanity”?

      • The planet isn’t in crisis. The planet is fine. We’re living in a time of mass extinction. My understanding is that this is the sixth time this has happened on this planet.

        The crisis is a human one. Possibly.

        But humans have been in perpetual crisis since gaining consciousness. So no change there either.

        • this argument is a silly distraction–it’s true the planet will survive but humanity is bringing about mass extinction by nature of its behavior on said planet – the crisis you speak of can be averted and altered by coming to consciousness as a species…throwing in the towel because this has happened six times is a choice you can make as well. It’s not one I’m willing to make. …planet will survive…”lower” life forms will survive… I’m with anyone who hopes to help humanity and other species to also survive and thrive all of us together.

  5. Thank you Monica!

    I’ve been trying to get people here and in general to recognize that all psychiatric “diagnostic” categories constitute HATE SPEECH and should NEVER be used without quotation marks — and not even that sufficiently addresses the situation. Since you’re harder to dismiss as a “radical extremist” maybe a few more people will now take this observation seriously.

  6. I agree with many of the points being made about othering people and using the language of mental illness and the DSM in pejorative ways to dismiss and demean people. I wouldn’t mind if we gave it all up.

    But, how can we then develop a common language to share our experiences with others that captures the uniqueness, individuality and diversity of our experiences as well as what we have in common.

    One thing I’d really like to see is to quit talking as though “psychosis” is the only experience called “mental illness”. There are all kinds of extremely distressing and debilitating experiences, behavior, thoughts, perceptions and emotions so the only issue here is not just “psychosis”.

    I also reject the notion that many of the signs or traits known as symptoms can’t be measured. Certainly, we can measure things like memory, concentration, pace of thoughts, lethargy, fatigue, comprehension, ability to read, write, eat, confusion, following directions, pain, repetitive thoughts and actions, having the sense of mastery over our thoughts, feelings, actions, ability to sleep, hours of sleep, levels of sleep, nightmares, a sense of calm, involuntary dwelling on past events and incidents, level of anxiety and fear, sociability, involuntary degree of fearfulness when faced with certain situations, etc.

    And when I say “measure” I don’t mean against someone else or some norm but to measure against a previous level of functioning that we desired and want to restore or work to achieve.

    And of course, many people can experience changes in functioning but disability depends on our ability to control these functions, and the degree to which we experience the changes to be extreme and for how long.

    These are all things that can be extremely distressing and debilitating to oneself that can make it impossible to meet our basic needs and/or carry out the kinds of activities we want to do.

    Drastic changes will exist for many of us no matter what we call that change or think about the change.

    So, how can we develop a common acceptable language outside of the medical model to assist people who need and want help and agree that the experiences of some are not the experiences of all.

  7. I agree. A very confusing and poorly written article on the topic.
    The contradition between suggesting that sensitive people are labelled “mentally ill” and suggesting “Everyone is Mentally Ill and that some of us who are labeled as such and thus ostracized by these labels” loses the impact of the point. Such an important topic, so poorly explained.

    So yes, those of us labeled mentally ill are often closer to sanity than most of society.
    Good lord. I do NOT read this writer and hope that someone else will write on this critical topic. I can’t share this with anyone I am working to educate on this topic.

    • Sorry you found the article distressing. I’m playing with language and it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. I hope you find something you can share with others since, we do, clearly agree the topic is important. It’s nice if we can appreciate that we all carry our message in different ways to reach different people…that’s what makes human beings wonderful…we’re all different! …and there are, indeed, other people who speak to this issue in different ways. I’m not the first to speak about language in mental health and how it’s highly problematic. I’m sorry I can’t think of anyone to recommend offhand. Goodluck.

  8. People are dead and dying because they have been labelled “mentally ill”. The term itself is used to justify the abuse that follows. It not only ‘others’ human beings, it’s an outright fallacy.
    Your entitled to your opinion and the woo-woo belief’s, but beyond the confusing, contradictory thought process, the message is contrary to the hard work of dispelling “mental illness” myths and the statements herein are counter-productive to the health and safety of the collective.
    The goal is to protect people from the harm that is housed within the fraudulent propaganda of the idea of “mental illness” itself, thus, when sheer nonsense sits beside concrete facts as if it fits within the same realm, it damages not only the message but the movement itself and ultimately people’s lives.

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