Letters to the Editor
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anon, I think we agree on something here..
In that my original point was that some activists & caretakers only cared about their cause-- and I'm speaking of the context of the clinic and grassroots level, not a finance committee. I'm sure it is far different. I've also sat in on board meetings at funding agencies. I understand it's a totally different dynamic.
I was originally talking about front-line services in city-funded clinics where some docs and social workers didn't want to deal with mentally ill patients. I worked along side them. Everyone had their pet cause, yet they're paid to treat all of them. To me that's discriminatory, pure and simple. Other caregivers couldn't discriminate like that; it would be lawsuit time. I've seen social workers and substance abuse counselors that know nothing about mental illness, yet they're going to see it daily (dual diagnosis is super-prevalent in substance abuse)
So partly, we're talking apples & oranges. And yes this is tangential to the book review, but I'm shamelessly soapboxing, admittedly. That doesn't negate anyone elses input. I'm not saying 'no money for AIDS'or 'screw cancer!" "my pain is worse than yours' etc. Just communicating about this neglected subject anyway I can think of; I don't see how that's so divisive. You're the one who mocked my comments about not understanding mental illness and its effects on the self, which is exactly what the book is about. (But I think this is part of the problematic nature of online discourses on emotional topics.)
And also, part of my original criticism was about AIDS & other activists who had a let-em-rot attitude about the mentally ill, which I thought was hypocritical of them. I live in SF so trust me, I've seen the rise of AIDS 'industry' from the 80's grassroots (which I participated in on a very tiny degree) to the red-ribbon celebrity bashes, etc. Then there were some Act-Up folks who had ridiculous theories, threw blood on people and so on-- I'm not encouraging that. So actually, we're agreeing here.
I'm not advocating for luxury spas for schizophrenia and grossout feelgood extravaganzas with "we are the world" singalongs, just something a little better than hospitals dumping them in the streets. I'd love to know how to get that done, and I think there were good results from AIDS activism as well as excesses.
We're all discussing lots of different aspects and I think misunderstanding each other, but that's online discourse for ya, so I'll wave the white flag and call it a night.
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Mental Illness, Intelligence, Mental Handicap, and Physical Trauma
I saw Sen. Tim Johnson, of South Dakota the other night on tv. His family took great pains to inform the public that although he couldn't speak or walk well because he was still recovering from a brain hemorrhage, there is nothing wrong with his brain. It occurred to me that I had never heard that expressed before; not in life, not in movies, books...nowhere. People just seem to put up with exterior problems in such cases, and have a lot of shame about them, and forget that there's a real person in that impaired body.
It further occurred to me that I'd never heard that sentiment uttered regarding the mentally ill, either. Notwhithstanding, it is just as true about the people in that community. Those who are mentally ill suffer from a physical deficiency that affects their behavior, which is a reflection of how they feel, which is based upon how they see the world--just like everyone else; only, because of their disability, they are unable to process correctly and so are debased and abandoned to live in poverty, or worse. All for the lack of one little pill daily: there are too many parents destroying the lives of children before they even get into school, there are too many young people rightly or wrongly angry, there are dangerously ill people in places of power, and a national treasury's worth of unharvested lives and intellect to be found living on skid row.
When Leonardo da Vinci was nearly excommunicated because of his study of cadavers, the deal he made with the Roman Catholic Church was that he would cease seeking the soul and stick to investigating the physical body and the RCC would stay out of the physical realm. Thus were artificially cleaved by man two integral parts of who we are. It carried over into medicine, naturally, since they dealt with the body, but it got a bit contentious when the psychology of man began to be investigated.
Still, although there is continually more proof that humans are just as much emotional, mental, and spiritual being as physical ones, modern society, especially in the United States, seems loathe to act accordingly, and help these people to be productive citizens; not just for their sake, but for all of us; not just because it makes financial sense, but because it is the humane and right thing to do.
There is a huge difference between mental illness and mental retardation, but somehow, I have a sense that the two are far too often conflated. There is a huge difference is conditions; sadly, however, the same indifference.
What we revile in others is what we most fear in ourselves; let us remember that we are all brothers and that the God-by-any-name that so many profess to follow commands us to love each other.
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electriclady, good point
I had a friend who was in a coma and when she came out she was seriously disabled and couldn't talk, and she said one of her biggest frustrations was when people would talk to her like she was a baby and she couldn't say "I'm still here!I'm not braindead-- I'm still ME!" I think any kind of brain or nervous impairment presents that problem, and I think that's what scares people about mental illness, and any kind of similar impairment, it reminds us how tenuous our sense of humanity can be. Mental illness can be so frighteningly dehumanizing.
Like when Scovak talked about disliking the term breakdown and the implication of being a broken machine; to me, that's exactly what I've felt like when I couldn't get my brain to work right. It would be so exasperating, and my version is much lighter than schizophrenia. I know my aunt remained positive but really greived about this loss and the barrier between her and "normal" people. When ill you can feel like a machine that doesn't work, whereas others seem like "real" people.
Maybe there's something we can learn from that, to keep reaching out even if they don't appear to be "there". And I hate to say it, but I sort of agree with the man that the author encountered in the book who asked her why didn't she try to know her sister better when she was alive. I feel the same guilt about my aunt.
The more we understand about mental illness, the more we will be able to understand those who suffer it and how we can connect with them, and that is in itself very vital to us all.