[faeriechangling]

So is being gay, transgender, an outspoken women, or left-handed mental illness since such people do not, by all appearance and objective measures, have the capacity to change their behaviours volitionally without for instance chemically castrating gay men or lobotomising women?

There's two big things wrong with this definition. First is that it makes non-compliance a pathology and assumes society is right and the patient is wrong. Second is that pays zero heed to ethics and what is actually good for the supposedly mentally ill person, it just labels them mentally ill if they don't do what people want without thinking of if that's best for them.

Of course, that's not THAT different from how mental disorders are defined in practice.

[naasking]

> First is that it makes non-compliance a pathology and assumes society is right and the patient is wrong.

My post said absolutely nothing about society or non-compliance, it spoke only about whether the patient can respond volitionally. Gay people absolutely can choose not have gay sex, it's just wrong to expect that. Outspoken women absolutely can choose to be silent, it's just wrong to expect that. Left handed people absolutely can choose to write with their non-dominant hand, it's just wrong to expect that. There is clear volitional control here.

I made this very clear with the example of Tourettes vs. someone who just likes to swear. The person with Tourettes cannot simply choose to not have verbal tics and then enact that choice, but the person who just likes swearing absolutely can. It's just a physical impossibility to regulate behaviour based on feedback or internal motivations.

> Second is that pays zero heed to ethics and what is actually good for the supposedly mentally ill person, it just labels them mentally ill if they don't do what people want without thinking of if that's best for them.

I have no idea what you mean. There's nothing unethical about pointing out that the mentally ill have a distinct behaviour in that they do not respond to specific kinds of feedback. It is in fact the starting point for ethical treatment of mental illness.