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Protagonism

Psychiatry is pseudoscience

The field of psychiatry and the concept of mental illness and sanity as used in the field function primarily as a society's way of portraying what it disapproves of to be *scientifically* bad, to make their value judgements appear to be above dispute.

Consider this example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppositional_defiant_disorder

So ODD is basically when you defy authority. How is this a "disorder"? There is nothing objectively wrong about the described behaviors. It's not an illness. It's not a "disorder". It's a set of behaviors that society disapproves of.

Or what about autism?

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability

As a person diagnosed as autistic, fuck you. I'm not disabled and don't have a "disorder". A core symptom my psychiatrist told me is that autistic people are "logical", that they don't like nonsensical figures of speech such as insincere uses of "really?" to respond to a surprising statement or social customs without a meaning, such as greetings. I'm proud of that! That particular claimed symptom isn't listed on this page, but let's look at some that are:

* be very interested in people, but not know how to talk, play, or relate to them
* have trouble expressing their needs using typical words or motions

Could it be that their native language and culture are stacked against people who don't fit the mold they're supposed to and make it difficult for them to express themselves? English vocabulary for expressing feelings is garbage; most of the emotion words don't have any agreed-on meaning and many feelings don't have an easy way to express them. This is a bigger problem if you care about expressing your feelings appropriately and understanding yourself, as a philosopher does, than if you don't.

* not play "pretend" games (for example, not pretend to "feed" a doll)

Being interested in reality instead of staying interested in worthless forms of pretending. They want to paint it as healthy for children to stay interested in meaningless things as long as possible, not take an interest in the real world and what they can do in it. This isn't a disorder. It's a virtuous trait.

* prefer not to be held or cuddled, or might cuddle only when they want to

Holy fuck! I shouted out loud when I read this. Not only is it a sign of "developmental disorder" to not like "being held or cuddled", but "or might cuddle only when they want to" - in other words, it's *developmental disorder* to be averse to cuddling *when you don't want to*. Holy fuck. Cuddling someone when they don't want it is physical assault and no one should be remotely okay with it.

Myopias on violence

The loss of the concept of consent

You can find a lot more. Most diagnoses of behavioral "disorders" are value judgements.

Part of the reason this is so important is that mental "illness" is widely used as an excuse to imprison innocent people:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_commitment

(fuck that euphemism, by the way) or to otherwise deprive them of rights (prohibiting people from owning weapons or accessing transgender health care). In fact, why not have a long list of it being used by governments to oppress people:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry

There are less horrific ways the concept is harmful too. It can be used to discredit people with unpopular opinions without dealing with their arguments. There's no rebuttal easier to give, less valid or more insulting than "it's not your fault you think that; your reasoning unit is broken". And yes, I've been called mentally disabled before by my family and, in a beautiful irony, it was for arguing this very point.

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