Mental illness discussions
May. 23rd, 2013 07:18 pmI am not sure I should really wade into this, because this kind of topic can really easily turn into non-mentally-ill people pontificating about how people with actual mental illnesses should live their lives while obliviously forgetting that they are likely to be talking to people who have actual personal experience. At the same time I think there is a big problem with prejudice against people with mental illnesses (as well as lack of access to treatment, which in some ways is connected to prejudice) and that's something I want to challenge.
( links and commentary about mental illness, including discussion of violence )
What I don't know here is how to use rhetoric responsibly. It does a lot of harm to imply that all mentally ill people, or all people with certain categories of mental illness, are dangerously violent. But it also does harm to pretend that mental illness can easily be handled by just, you know, having a "positive attitude"; decent mental health provision is absolutely necessary, both for people with mental illnesses and for wider society. I suppose I want to argue that people should be able to get help because it's morally right that we take collective responsibility for treating the sick, not necessarily because otherwise they might go on a rampage and murder their carers or some innocent bystander. And I want to argue for this in a way that isn't about making me, as a non-mentally-ill person, feel safer at the expense of others.
( links and commentary about mental illness, including discussion of violence )
What I don't know here is how to use rhetoric responsibly. It does a lot of harm to imply that all mentally ill people, or all people with certain categories of mental illness, are dangerously violent. But it also does harm to pretend that mental illness can easily be handled by just, you know, having a "positive attitude"; decent mental health provision is absolutely necessary, both for people with mental illnesses and for wider society. I suppose I want to argue that people should be able to get help because it's morally right that we take collective responsibility for treating the sick, not necessarily because otherwise they might go on a rampage and murder their carers or some innocent bystander. And I want to argue for this in a way that isn't about making me, as a non-mentally-ill person, feel safer at the expense of others.
