Welcome to From Insults to Respect. The two dominant manuals for “diagnosing mental disorders” are the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases. (ICD). Their overarching concept is mental disorders. Synonyms are psychopathology, and mental illness. To access mental health services, most people are required to accept being labelled as having a mental illness. Not everyone respects this…
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Perhaps some of you who have joined us here today have begun to notice that many in the media have begun to replace using the words “mentally ill,” “mental disorder,” or “psychopathology,” with words like, “a person with a mental health concern,” “mental health issue,” “mental health challenge,” or “mental health problem.” This change is viewed by some as more…
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Last week, I presented a post titled, “Mental Illness as Distress, Abnormality, and Dysfunction.” There, I explained that it is actually normal in our society to have periods during which we become concerned that we are too distressed, or too dissatisfied with our level of functioning. The pharmaceutical companies, I noted, promote that these concerns are mental disorders and…
Welcome to From Insults To Respect. In our society, many assume psychiatrist can accurately diagnose mental illness, also referred to as mental disorder or psychopathology. Why do they? Sometimes we respect what a group of people do because of their association with something we highly value. Thus, in a commercial, we might see people purchasing a particular brand of car with a highly respected athlete,…
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today we take a close look at one reason some folks have a low level of respect for people who are viewed as having a mental illness–the belief that such people are avoiding responsibilities. There are two other main reasons for the stigma associated with being labelled mentally ill that we won’t dive into today, but I’ll just briefly mention….
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. I hope the beauty of spring is helping to make your daily challenges more pleasant. Regular readers know that from time to time I write a post advocating that mental health service providers change the way people access their services so that it becomes more respectful and more consistent with the principles of science. What I mean by this, is…
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Regular readers know that I have, from time to time, been dealing with a conflict regarding psychiatric diagnosis. Said briefly, there are many people who immediately lose respect for anyone who questions the validity of the mental illness/mental disorder theoretical construct. On the other hand, many people have lost respect for the psychiatric profession because of its pathologizing approach of…
With some regularity, former President Trump has been accused of being mentally ill. Here at From Insults to Respect, we’re going today to take a discerning look at this. We’ll begin with some pieces that appeared in the media when he was president, and then see if we can move ahead to make our own informed personal decision. The Washington Post Article In a Washington Post…
At 39-years of age, Ron had been a respected employee in a department store for nearly ten years. If he had made it to ten full years, he would have qualified for some extra benefits. Upper management chose to replace him with someone new a week before the ten years were up. Discovering that landing a new job was leading to one rejection after another, Ron…
In an article titled “The Roots of Mental Illness,” the author, Kirsten Weir, tells us about Eric Kandel, MD, who believes that the experiences that doctors refer to as mental illnesses are brain diseases. Dr. Kandel defends his belief with the following statement: “All mental processes are brain processes, and therefore all disorders of mental functioning are biological diseases. The brain is the organ of the…
