Training the Community in Diagnosing Each Other

Apparently Ken ( the police officer learning how to deal with mental cases such as myself) has told Liz ( or perhaps his buddy the volunteer fire fighter who knows Liz is the one who told her) that we mental cases have to be dealt with in very black and white terms. It has also been suggested that I ‘seem’ quite normal because all of ‘them’ are not as ‘confrontational’ as some of ‘them.’ This is how the community will try to fit me into their ongoing diagnostic session again.

I have faith of course that they will always find a way to make me ‘sick’ by adjusting whatever I do or say to fit into their pathologizing belief system. It is not hard to do as everything is already covered to allow for that. Once chosen to be ‘sick’ one will be and remain ‘sick’ in all things and any sign of normality will be invalidated ASAP. Otherwise the ‘normal’ people might have to think they are imagining things.

Words like ‘confrontational’ of course are what I call nexus words (or phrases) If it is applied to one of ‘them’ (like me) then being ‘confrontational’ is a negative character flaw.. On the other hand to be ‘confrontational’ if it is applied to one of “us” (those evaluating me and my life) it is a sign of assertive character, standing up for oneself etc.

It is not really the trait itself you see that is a ‘symptom.’ (Though we must all pretend together that it is) it is who HAS the trait, and it is judged on that basis, without regard to specific relationships events, or circumstances. This is what makes the ‘science” of psychiatry so beautifully political. It’s diagnostics are extremely fluid and vague, in order to be applied to anyone anywhere at any time for any reason.

Let me give you a current example of the community diagnostics in action.
Three teenaged girls were heard in a public washroom this week, assessing a fourth (who of course, was not there. The whole community here is being well trained by the system to be able to see signs everywhere; to LOOK for them, in fact. ) Now the teens who don’t like someone in their peer group, can find enough ‘signs’ to call the person ‘crazy.’ As we all know, suggesting that someone is ‘crazy’ is the first step in driving them to YOUR chosen destination.

So Homewood, don’t be surprised when a fifteen year old girl shows up there in abut six months breaking down under the pressure applied by her peer group, who have been looking for signs and symbols of ‘madness in their ‘defective’ former friend just as you have trained this community to do. The targeted individual may even be disconnected form concrete reality when she arrives. If not, letting her discover she is trapped in a diagnosis resulting from her telling the truth should push her over the edge quite nicely. I think it is unlikely that a fifteen year old will be able to escape the maze of psychiatric invalidation, even if only psychologically. She just won’t understand….which of course will become another symptom, won’t it?

Oh yes, I almost forgot. Do you know how this group knows the one they were assessing by name, in the public bathroom is mentally ill?

“If you are angry at your family or yell at any of them, that is a sing you are bi-polar.”

The A.C.T.ors of madness have now taken centre stage in our citywide melodrama.