The dirt from Dirt: The Future of Butch Genocide
Here is a cause we need to oppose -- the attempt by the psychiatric establishment, representing patriarchy, to label those who do not fit neat gender stereotypes as "mentally ill".
Speaking for myself, and as a heterosexual, I see that the attempt to revive an antiquated attitude towards gender is extremely perverted and pathological from the point of view of humanity.
Consider the normal, heterosexual sex-drive for instance. If a large part of me does not actually "identify" as male, then I am unable to empathise with a male on a sexual level. The lack of empathy means the lack of intersubjective connection, which means in turn, the lack of eroticism during a sexual encounter.
The inherent bisexuality of human beings (which was even recognised and acknowledged as such by such patriarchal perverts as Freud and Jung)ought to be brought more to the fore of our consciousness, not pushed aside by threatening and stigmatising practices of labelling and "fixing".
The castration of human sexuality by trying to push people into too narrow categories ought to be outlawed.
5 comments:
I think we have been far too eager to typecast others as neurotic or mentally ill when they are just different from us.
All this delving into the psyche of people who just have a point of view that we don't understand! It's good to learn how to live among people who diverge from us, and we can be free to be the way we are too. They are not going to go away, after all.
It takes some thought, some patience, but cultiviting understanding is well worth it. It's the way to inner freedom.
Agreed. Not that there are not some seriously pathological people out there, but the fact is that in a society that is mostly devoid of any kind of ethical consciousness, there is little to distinguish between those who are severely pathological and those who are just getting what they can out of life (but without any ethical consciousness). And then there is the additional fact that the system that is supposed to "help" those suffering from actual pathologies is nothing other than a different kind of police service for the wealthy classes.
Pathology is problematic in general, since it assumes a "right" design of brain. This made sense in the days when we thought that the brain was a designed artefact, created by God. In a world where science no longer presupposes an existence of God, it makes no sense that people still talk of "The" brain, as though it has a right way of being, and anything that diverges from that is considered pathological.
Course, if there's no such thing as mental illness, then there's also no such thing as mental health. And anything goes, including pedophilia and cannabilism.
I do agree with that society has a tendancy to label as deviant that which is merely different, but hello we still have to have some standards.
of course there is such a thing as mental health. Nietzsche said that madness was the norm within groups, nations and organisations, but was actually rare in individuals.
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