Wednesday 3 June 2009

Linguistic alienation

Have a look at this. Not the contents, but the form. And compare it to the post itself. Rickey Gillespie's comment perfectly illustrates what I mean, when I talk about alienating terminology. This guy isn't even capable of commenting in plain English on a post, that is written in plain English. I wonder, how he communicates with his wife, kids, friends, whoever. "Apis-regurgitated nectar, could you please get me a sodium carbonate-calcium oxide enriched silica container of brewed and fermented malted hordeum vulgare grains comorbid with humulus lupulus strobiles"? "I wonder what the etiology of the F 51.5 (307.47 in the DSM) I had last night could be"? Probably...

Reminds me of someone on a discussion forum: "They told me my diagnosis today. F 25.9 (that's 295.7 in the DSM, yah...). Does anyone here know, what that means?"

13 comments:

Monica Cassani said...

I thought exactly the same thing when I saw it!! ha ha!

people who think like that are scary.

Monica Cassani said...

you know it's not just people in mental health but most fields of academics...they forget how to speak simply..it's a way of being exclusive and feeling like they belong to a special club...

it's everywhere including shit like sociology...it's pretentious academic bullshit.

Marian said...

Actually, I've been accused of it myself. And I do sometimes practise it - when people like our Rickey here think, they can shut up a cognitively certainly deficiant mental case by using, well, linguistic alienation tactics. It worked with the person, I mention in my post. - Disgusting amount of disrespect to just throw a number (and without doubt a glass of pills...) at her without any further explanation, and, obviously, treating her like shit in general, since she didn't even dare to ask. - Won't work with me. I'm not impressed.

Monica Cassani said...

oh I definitely know how to work it if I'm in the company of professionals...but shit...context counts...like you said here we are on a psychiatrists blog who is speaking PLAIN english!!

Marian said...

BTW: I've also been accused of "making use of some of the worst slang" he's ever heard. By my English teacher in high school. I'd just read Kerouac...

David said...

God, I probably talk like that... :-(

David said...

(your piss-take - not the original!)

David said...

Having thought a little on the topic... Well, firstly, I don't subscribe to the concept of psychosis in the way *they* mean it.

But on the other hand, I understand where they are coming from. Yes, I get 'symptoms' all the time.

Also, I'm so lax I really cannot see the difference between MD and Sch apart from being at slightly different extremes. I think this is evidence against the diagnostic model. When I'm not freaking out because I'm high, I'm listening to a damned soundtrack of a million imagined scenarios with a full supporting cast. I've been writing novels since I was 18. I don't have a problem with 'voices' I call it imagination.

I also don't have a problem when I go so high I break the bounds of reality for me when I'm not. I cracked problems and understood things that I can only wonder at after the event. I can't follow the logic - but I can still feel the truth. Maybe I haven't the intellect, the intelligence, whatever, to join the dots after the event. I just know the statements I formulated at the time (when no-one present understood a word coming out of my mouth) have been a source of strength and wisdom to me since.

Sorry - ranting in your comment box. Apologies.

Take care, Dx

Marian said...

D: Actually, what I liked about his comment was that he admitted, that psychiatry has no biological evidence on the basis of which to make a diagnosis, that psych diagnoses are made entirely on the basis of individual, subjective judgement of observed behaviour. Which is plain English for what he needs two paragraphs of half-scientific gibberish to state. - And, no matter what, you don't do that. You don't produce lengthy, circumstantial rants for what can be said in one or two sentences - and beware of that! it's called "circumstantiality" respectively "stilted speech", and would in your case be seen as a "symptom" of thought disorder, lol.

Anyway, I felt a certain temptation to ask him, if ever it had crossed his mind that maybe, just maybe, the "important journey" he feels he and his colleagues are making could be down a blind alley. - Indeed, seen from my perspective, they look a bit like hamsters running for life in a running wheel... And if it wasn't so sad (because of the countless destroyed lives on their track), it would be a scream. - But as we all know, it is close to impossible to convince delusional people that their beliefs are delusions...

Marian said...

P.S. to D: Can't but agree, that the main difference between "BD" and "sz" lies in what kind of extreme feelings are experienced, and how extreme it gets. A couple of other differences maybe, though more or less insignificant, imo.

And yes, if you get the chance to figure the meaning, it's a gift, not a disease. "Hell are other people." Especially those, who tell you, it's all meaningless madness.

Rickey Gillespie said...

Almost three years later i ran across this conversation about my post. You all make many good points about my comments. For what it is worth, i don't speak like this with people i work with clinically. Marian takes a particularly big leap going from my comments in the thread to an assumption of how i work with my patients. Unless you know me in personal life or have been treated by me you are solidly in the realm of speculation on this point. Debate, especially when it is scientific, usually depends on being very specific and i apoligize if my comments were overly stilted. Still i am rightly criticized for being very wordy sometimes and could say things better-my intent was not to confuse or stonewall through gibberish. Finally, please don't pigeonhole me too severely on the basis of a few paragraphs on an internet thread-we probably have more in common when it comes to mental health issues than you might think.

Best Regards,
Rickey Gillespie
Atlanta, Georgia

SpiritualEmergencyx2 said...

Marian
There is little doubt that there are many VALID targets in the current paradigm of Psychiatry ( NIMH cronyism ,KOLs ,the corrupt influence of Pharma in academia).

The use of a random “Cut & Paste “comment from an academic blog as evidence of an individual’s “linguistic alienation” and therefore poor treatment of his patients is irresponsible. Save your comments for providers who are part of the problem not part of the solution.

As a patient of this individual I can assure you I have never experienced “linguistic alienation” ,been silenced as a “cognitively deficient mental case” , been “treated like shit in general” ,sent out the door with “a glass of pills” or been given “a number”….so I will take the time to answer YOUR question:

“I wonder how he communicates with his wife, kids ,friends, whoever”?

I would imagine with the same compassion with which he treats his patients. Save your fire for those who rightly deserve it……… “Once you label me you negate me” is a two way street.

Marian said...

"Patients"? I wonder what his "patients" suffer from, since "patients" is an appropriate label for them.