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Old Oct 15, 2011, 04:56 PM
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Ygrec23 Ygrec23 is offline
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Member Since: Apr 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalya View Post
Using words that are precise yet non-scary and non-judgmental is kinda nice. So when I happened upon the newest coinage, "brain-based diseases", to cover BP, schizophrenia, etc., I liked it. It reflects the biological origin, the locus of the problem, and passes no judgment at all. Not "mental illness" (overloaded with judgment and unclear), not "psychiatric disease" (scary), but simply "brain-based". I like that.
Well, yeah, kinda. Do you understand that every single one of the former terms were coined for the same express purpose as appears to motivate you: to avoid stigma and invent a novel term that was completely neutral. If you succeed in having your words replace prior terminology they will do so for a decade or so and by that time will have accumulated the same pejorative connotations that attach to current terms. Is it worth it? Isn't there some benefit to simply challenging the concepts behind the stigma rather than in avoiding it? Myself, I kinda admire the people who've adopted the group name of "lunatic fringe."
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Thanks for this!
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