Is there some underlying idea that 'madness' is just a different way of perceiving that shouldn't be treated like a disease?
Yep.
If it was just about combating the stigma and misconceptions ,or 'coming out' as a mental patient with nothing to be ashamed of,then that sounds like a good thing but, if it creates some kind of pressure to embrace my condition and celebrate it, that is kind of unsettling.
The former is the part I wholeheartedly agree with; the latter is what I object to.
Very much with you on that score. The thing I think it's important for the anti-treatment camp to consider is that a treatment model can include the desirability of retaining any of the aspects one sees as positive. I don't want to be free of mild halluciantions/visions or hypomanic highs that don't interfere with the way I want to live my life but, there was all that donkey dong suckage I did want rid of and it's possible to target and treat only that.
I think where that aspect really fall apart is that it suggests there's some common unifying experience involved other than a shared stigma and that isn't even the same across the board. No community or common culture has evolved from it.
It sounds like they're trying to create a parallel with something like deafness, where there is a community and a language or, leprosy where people have been forced into isolation together.
Even in the days when forced hospitalisation of the mentally ill was common, the amount of social interaction was probably small.
Yeah. I think the parallels with the Deaf community, or the queer community (where "pride" and "coming out" are borrowed from), break down under analysis. I can see some parallels, but they don't have much to do with my experience.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 09:37 pm (UTC)Yep.
If it was just about combating the stigma and misconceptions ,or 'coming out' as a mental patient with nothing to be ashamed of,then that sounds like a good thing but, if it creates some kind of pressure to embrace my condition and celebrate it, that is kind of unsettling.
The former is the part I wholeheartedly agree with; the latter is what I object to.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 08:55 am (UTC)"Madness" sometimes includes different ways of perceiving, which can be very useful, creative, beautiful, and valuable.
Nevertheless, some aspects of having wonky brain chemistry suck donkey dongs.
Can we have Cranky Pride?
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 12:09 pm (UTC)It sounds like they're trying to create a parallel with something like deafness, where there is a community and a language or, leprosy where people have been forced into isolation together.
Even in the days when forced hospitalisation of the mentally ill was common, the amount of social interaction was probably small.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 02:11 pm (UTC)