lets see if i can motivate my annoyance with the term 'defective' a bit better...

once upon a time it was thought that females were defective males.

now it is recognised that being female is a distinct way of being just as being male is a distinct way of being and neither is a 'defective' version of the other.

then you get other genetic ways of being:

xxx

and so on. currently we regard these people as defective. there is a social move toward regarding these people as simply being in a different way.

the best candidate we have for the genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia is some values on a three gene locus found in around about 7% of people with schizophrenia and also found in around 14% of people without schizophrenia. is having those values on the three gene locus defective or another way of being?

the function of genes is to replicate...
hence mutations in replication would be malfunctions...
everyone has some mutations
therefore everyone has genetic malfunction.

some of these malfunctions result in IMPROVED performance

malfunction doesn't entail 'defect' (where 'defective' is distinctly a normative rather than descriptive term)

and mental illness doesn't entail 'defective' either...

mental illness might just be different ways of being...

but when the consequences (the behaviour) is considered harmful to theirself or others... when their behaviour is considered to breech certain kinds (yet to be specifief) of social norms...

for a time...

we label them as having defective traits.

of being in a defective way.

and i don't like it one bit.

want to know the fastest way to make someone chronically mentally ill?

treat them as though they are chronic and persuade them to internalise a view of themself as 'chronically mentally ill'. want to know why depression is commonly caused by mental illness? how uplifting is it to view oneself as mentally defective?

viewing oneself as defective...

well... thats just charming. and it isn't an empirical issue because our judgement of 'defect' is motivated by normative considerations rather than scientific ones.

(and the 'defective' and 'biological abnormality' view is motivated by people thinking that it isn't their fault and they can't just will themselves into feeling better. well it isn't your fault you are male / female either and you can't just will yourself into being a different biological gender and so it is false that you need to view yourself as defective in order to accept that mental illness isn't your fault. it is interesting that people wanted to DENY the biological underpinnings when they took eugenics to the the consequence of accepting the view whereas now people EMBRACE the biological underpinnings when they take 'not my fault' to be the consequence of accepting the view. the view doesn't entail much aside from the fact that you are faulty, damaged, broken, abnormal, chronic. instead of embracing that - and the depression that typically results - one can see that this is a social / political issue really. doesn't have scientific basis)

sigh.