From: "Mark M." <markm@voicenet.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 13:55:14 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
In-Reply-To: <199607070045.RAA24335@netcom5.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.94.960706224526.1124A-100000@gak>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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On Sat, 6 Jul 1996, Mike Duvos wrote:

> This, of course, is justified by the psychiatric profession's
> invention of dozens of bogus diseases, syndromes, and disorders
> for children.  These are not caused by any organic pathology, of
> course, but are instead defined solely by the child belonging to
> the upper five percent of those exhibiting perfectly normal
> behaviors which annoy people who have money to hire
> psychiatrists.  For kids, that's parents and teachers, and the
> afflicted population jumps to ten percent if you happen to be a
> kid unlucky enough to be under the care of Mormons.

While the psychiatric profession has invented many bogus diseases, that does
not mean that the profession has no credibility.  Remember that psychology is
little more than philosophy.  Abnormal behavior patterns don't necessarily mean
that a child has a disorder or disease.  However, if the child experiences
physical symptoms, then a chemical imbalance in the brain is not that
farfetched.

> 
> Refuse to go to a crappy public school and you are suffering from
> "School Phobia." Don't jump to follow the orders of the nearest
> adult, or disagree with an adult, and its "Oppositional-Defiant"
> Disorder.  Not to mention the plethora of ADD/ADDH nonsense that
> is used to label any kid who is bored to tears by eight hours a
> day of political indoctrination from the NEA and AFT.

First of all, a child is considered to have "school phobia" when the child
refuses to go to school and also has severe anxiety attacks, vomiting, and
nausea.  It's a lot more than refusing to go to a "crappy public school."
Attention Deficit Disorder is hardly nonsense; it's a disorder found to be
partly hereditary and strongly linked with clinical depression.

[...]
> 
> Actually, I think calling someone who force-feeds you a
> mind-numbing drug "A Fucking Asshole" is, to borrow one of Tim's
> favorite words, "Unremarkable." :)
> 
> This Soviet-style "Medicalization of Dissent", while applied
> primarily to children today, historically has been done by the
> psychiatric profession on behalf of anyone who could write their
> name on a large check. It wasn't too long ago that they even had
> an official mental disorder whose symptoms were "an abnormal
> desire for freedom" on the part of a Black man.  Slave owners
> must have been just as happy with that as Ritalin-dispensing
> parents and teachers are today.
> 
>  > The connection with the themes of our list is that this
>  > linguistic doublethink is what allows Big Brother's control
>  > of our communications and private files to be called by the
>  > relatively benign name of "escrow."
> 
> Indeed.

I do agree that Ritalin, like Prozac, is being used inappropriately as a sort
of cure-all drug.  And I also agree that inventing malodies for anything
undesirable to society has Orwellian implications.  Everyone who doesn't agree
with the State is obviously mentally ill and must be "cured."

There are real illnesses, and there are fake ones.  Just because the psychiatic
profession does attribute certain behavior to some non-existent illness doesn't
mean there is any reason to not believe in any psychological maladies.  There
are many severe and very painfull illnesses such as depression,
schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and multiple personality
disorder.  There are also psychological disorders such as anorexia, phobias,
and mood disorders.  It's surprising to me that people consider the Unabomber
"insane" but yet do not believe that many very real mental illnesses and
disorders exist.

- -- Mark

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
markm@voicenet.com              | finger -l for PGP key 0xe3bf2169
http://www.voicenet.com/~markm/ | d61734f2800486ae6f79bfeb70f95348
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.  If that
is granted, all else follows."  --George Orwell, _1984_


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