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Sure, but I think their point here is that many things are called a disorder when the the problem is a trait combined with social norms. Yes, the person is distressed or unable to function, but that determination is made on the basis of the person's experience in a highly constructed environment. For example, look at the way gay and lesbian people were treated. Now we understand that there's nothing wrong with them; it's a natural human variation. But for quite a while it was treated as both a social and a medical problem. [1] And some of the evidence used to medicalize the issue came from the way society mistreated those they saw as deviant. You can see the same dynamic playing out today with trans people. The trans suicide rate is absurdly high, and there's all sorts of comorbidity. Anti-trans campaigners will use that to suggest that trans-ness is the problem. Trans people themselves will tell you that the problem is society's relentless and often vicious gender policing, where trans people are forced into societal roles that don't suit them. The same applies to people who aren't neurotypical. The tech industry has been a haven for me. I grew up as the nerd, the weird kid, the eternal outsider. When I first turned up in San Francisco 20 years ago, it was a fucking relief. Early on I spent most of 3 days at our colo on a big project, and I still remember seeing all my fellow sysadmins come in and out. They talked like me, they looked like me, they dressed like me. It was such a huge relief: I had finally come to a place where I didn't stick out all the time. Instead of people wanting to medicate me for my ADD, etc, I got to join an industry where the unusual way I thought was a positive. So although in theory your distinction is correct, it's not so neat in the real world. Being incompatible with social norms is a huge mental burden, causing distress and dysfunction. Does that mean the trait is a disorder? Your colleagues have often declared it so. Note how in the 30s and 40s left-handedness was seen by prominent psychiatrists as a serious condition in need of correction. They have come around on that, and on some GLBT issues. But I see no reason to think that we have eliminated the class of problem. I think medicalization of deviance is still an ongoing issue. [1] http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/anonymous-no-more/essay/medica... |