Honestly I think about half the problem is that psychiatric illnesses don't make people bleed, so there's no way to universally tell something is wrong.
The bane of society, I think, is mentally healthy people.
They run politics but have absolutely no appreciation for what works for non-healthy people. Which is all the people who acutally rely on politics/society.
I think conservatism as a personality is a symptom of good mental health: if you arent able to do something, its lazyness. So you must just need some motivation: either a beating or some money. etc.
That's true if you're mentally healthy. If not then the ways you are failing arent even imaginable from the POV of mental health. And they are as communicable as cancer, or any physical illness.
The last century is full of works by people who have recently taken acid telling everyone how "everything is now differnet" etc. How they couldnt even have imagined the things they took for granted in how their minds work were actually variable.
Every mental illness is its own unique form of acid. And unless you've been on an acid trip, or are very well informed medically, you've no idea what it is like.
This is an interesting perspective. I would add that there may be multiple "healthy" modes of being human that are quite different, and some of these modes may be a small minority. In a small tribe these cognitive differences may have been valued (depending on the tribe of course!), but in our modern, highly systematized society these people are often considered a social "misfit" for being unable or unwilling to play along.
For better or worse, the rules of society are designed by the neurotypical majority, who are often unable to see that the concept of "normal" is frequently just a fig leaf for the majority consensus. This can get wrapped up in politics through layers of metaphor but is rarely (if ever) engaged with directly in public debate.
> the rules of society are designed by the neurotypical majority
That's another way of putting it. I'm not sure the majority are neurotypical however.
I think, rather, "neurotypicality" is a background assumption of certain institutions because it's easier to design for an average even if it doesn't exist (no 1 human being is mean in every respect).
However those who experience life-long mental health, and esp. for most of their childhood, I think are overwhelmingly "conservative" in their personalities. And I think these sort do tend to find themselves in more elite/visible positions.
Political systems represent those who hold power. They do not represent a majority (power is the mechanism of representation, not mere existence).
In democracies, there is more "tending towards the majority". But still, it is very much a symptom of who can be elected, who is elected, etc.
> I think conservatism as a personality is a symptom of good mental health: if you arent able to do something, its lazyness. So you must just need some motivation: either a beating or some money. etc.
This is a really cynical view of conservatism and I have a hard time seeing how you don't see half the country as evil if that's what you think.
Another view might be: this stuff is so complicated, and as you pointed out it's so difficult for political leaders to have real empathy for people in these situations, there is a high degree of chance we will screw this up and make it worse while trying to help. Example: homosexuality being in the DSM. Or really much of the history of how state institutions have treated the mentally ill, which has mostly had to do with keeping them away from the non mentally ill and not actually treating them.
I don't see it being cynical. I think it's the opposite of evil. It paints conservatives as entirely reasonable people making entirely reasonable suggestions but simply failing to appreciate difference.
A failure to appreciate difference is not evil, its part of how everyone acts in entirely well-intentioned ways.
Also, I dont think anywhere near half of any country has a conservative personality. Certainly the GOP are not today defined by their conservatism, whatever it is, it is radical.
I would say a fundamentally conservative personality is something most common in the vaguely upper-middle classes. It is present, to a degree, in the more traditional working class environments (eg. mom-and-pop store children, etc.).
It's all about seeing your success follow from your actions in a way that you control. It's about being able to plan, execute, and understand consistently -- for most of your life.
I think that's rarer than half, maybe 1/3? At a guess. And i think its not partisan: there are leftwing and rightwing conservatives.
Do you want to give people medicine so they can conform to what society expects from them, or do you instead try to change society so it doesn't have this expectations in the first place.
With ADHD what a lot of people see is this: You are not being efficient, so that is a flaw that needs to be fixed. But where is the line? Should we really optimize for maximal productivity or are other forms of society possible?
You might be looking at ADHD too much through the lens of buying some Adderall before a uni exam so that you can nail it.
ADHD interferes with everything from social relationships to doing anything that you want to do. We have to be productive insofar as to pay for food and shelter, but you're addressing a very narrow aspect of what ADHD medication treats. For some people, it's the ability to socialize, finish a joke, and achieve their life ambitions.
Yes, this "Social" view of disability has I think, gone too far.
A dog with three legs is much worse at being a dog.
There is really something it is to be a human, and it isnt just defined by culture and present-day society.
We live on earth. We eat food. We socialize. We, by being human, do a very large number of things merely because we are human. And if you damage part of our body, we can't do those things. And doing those things is a fundamental part of what we do.
ADHD really is a neurological impairment on this scale. It isn't "being less productive". It is a torture, a trauma, an on-going alienating, destabilizing impairment.
You might say "well couldn't there be a society where ADHD was an advantage"... i'd say basically No, not without changing the human species.
Yes, maybe we could imagine one. A society perfectly designed for people with ADHD, but when you describe that society in detail, you'd discover its profoundly impairing to people without ADHD.
As in, imagine we all lived as if we had no arms. That would be an extreme oppression to the almost everyone who does. And that's because on-earth, doing the things human beings do, arms are inherently part of doing those things well. That is why not having arms is a disability, not a lifestyle choice.
Similarly for vision, hearing, etc.
ADHD is an impairment to advanced cognitive function. It's an impairment to your minds ability to "see" itself.
The moment we start to say, of children with ADHD, that they should have this impairment.. that it's our "culture" that decides this impairment is bad... I think that's a gross abuse of those children.
It's turning your own lack of dependence on pharmacology, your own health, into a trap for people who do need it.
They run politics but have absolutely no appreciation for what works for non-healthy people. Which is all the people who acutally rely on politics/society.
I think conservatism as a personality is a symptom of good mental health: if you arent able to do something, its lazyness. So you must just need some motivation: either a beating or some money. etc.
That's true if you're mentally healthy. If not then the ways you are failing arent even imaginable from the POV of mental health. And they are as communicable as cancer, or any physical illness.
The last century is full of works by people who have recently taken acid telling everyone how "everything is now differnet" etc. How they couldnt even have imagined the things they took for granted in how their minds work were actually variable.
Every mental illness is its own unique form of acid. And unless you've been on an acid trip, or are very well informed medically, you've no idea what it is like.