Thanks, everyone, for this conversation! I do not believe in the medical model & I own that the language is problematic–I found organic bipolar used in Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, though I’m sure he’d want the use of that term to be guarded.
Certainly having the cognitive damage of multiple rounds of shock treatment when I was a young girl puts me in a place where I’m never going to defend psychiatry.
I think the kinds of things coming up here are part of why my current research is on consciousness itself–its richness, the ways in which it can’t be explained by brain processes alone. Difference is not a medical issue but a human one. I almost feel like we need to invent a language for this (if anyone has any, share it!).
I hear what you’re saying but I definitely didn’t write any particular way to get published–I publish on other things & the fallout from this one was excruciating in many ways.
Out of eight kids on my mother’s side of the family, three with very different histories share what fits the description of bipolar disorder–in my second book I claimed the term manic depressive, because to me it’s descriptive & now mostly outside the medical model. I struggle with language & I definitely feel that tug, with wanting to out completely from medical language but also wanting to fit myself somewhere on the spectrum of neurodiversity. So I’m really considering your comments & offering that I really struggle with language to share my experience myself. I want to find a way to define what may be common experiences outside the mainstream–tangible neurodiverse experiences–without medicine or psychiatry being attached. Maybe try to do some of the good work the autistic community has done in that regard.
She referred to Aktion T4 here.
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Well, that I agree with 100%. Something sick about the person saying “you are sick.” yes.
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Thanks, everyone, for this conversation! I do not believe in the medical model & I own that the language is problematic–I found organic bipolar used in Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, though I’m sure he’d want the use of that term to be guarded.
Certainly having the cognitive damage of multiple rounds of shock treatment when I was a young girl puts me in a place where I’m never going to defend psychiatry.
I think the kinds of things coming up here are part of why my current research is on consciousness itself–its richness, the ways in which it can’t be explained by brain processes alone. Difference is not a medical issue but a human one. I almost feel like we need to invent a language for this (if anyone has any, share it!).
Report comment
I hear what you’re saying but I definitely didn’t write any particular way to get published–I publish on other things & the fallout from this one was excruciating in many ways.
Out of eight kids on my mother’s side of the family, three with very different histories share what fits the description of bipolar disorder–in my second book I claimed the term manic depressive, because to me it’s descriptive & now mostly outside the medical model. I struggle with language & I definitely feel that tug, with wanting to out completely from medical language but also wanting to fit myself somewhere on the spectrum of neurodiversity. So I’m really considering your comments & offering that I really struggle with language to share my experience myself. I want to find a way to define what may be common experiences outside the mainstream–tangible neurodiverse experiences–without medicine or psychiatry being attached. Maybe try to do some of the good work the autistic community has done in that regard.
Report comment