An Industry of Madness?

[femmeInterrupted]

Girl on Fire,

Thanks so much for sharing. You make totally awesome and valid observations and points.

Both the Women's community, and the LGBTTQ communities have had problematic histories and over-representation in being pathologized by the Psychiatric community.

A scant century ago women were admitted into Lunatic Asylum/Mental Hospitals on the testimony of husbands, fathers, brothers and policemen who identified women's reproductive functions as primary causes of insanity. Some traced origins of "mental illness" to childbirth with diagnosis like "womb trouble, since the birth of her child six years ago" With other pseudo- gynaecological-psychiatric assessments that gave the 'strain' of labour causing mental derangement. Similarly, single women, women at conflict with the law (sex workers, etc) were diagnosed by doctors who asserted that 'his medically trained eye could easily detect the insane eye".

We fast forward to our present day and observe that Gender Identity Disorder is in the DSM IV-- and that the pathologizing of gender (trans)gressions of children, is alive and well. For example :

1) Stated desires
(my Butch tells stories begging for a 'boy's haircut and clothing' as a young child. And for a period of time, insisted to all hy would meet that hy was really a little boy.

2) Preferences in play
Again, same thing. Wanted hys brothers tonka toys, wanted to be involved in the games with the guys, hang with them, etc.

3) Participation in stereotypical games and past times
Problematic. Hated getting the toys and clothing for gifts, because they weren't what Hy really wanted. Fuck the nightie, hy wanted polo jammies like hys brothers. That sort of thing.

4) Preferences for playmates of the other sex
Again, in childhood preferred to play with boys, related easier.

5) Discomfort with sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role
Just a general state of 'wrongness'

These are just personal examples ( and my Butch is totally O.K. sharing these parts of hys experience in this forum ) in direct response to the DSM 'criteria'.

It's not an uncommon story or experience.
I am sure there are hundreds with similar experiences on this website alone.

my Butch is NOT 'mentally ill', nor does hy identify with having a 'psychiatric disorder' because his gender expression is non-conforming expected ways of expressing gender. Hy'll quickly state hys biggest challenge is dealing with me!

Creates more questions than answers, but while reading your response I thought of this Gary Lawson cartoon re: Psychiatry and some people's experiences.


"Trouble Brewing"

[Girl_On_Fire]

Thankfully, being transgender is no longer seen as a mental illness. Neurodiverse people are now coming to the forefront as well as people who simply see the world differently and are not "mentally ill".

After years of struggling socially, I stumbled upon Asperger's syndrome and found that it literally explained everything about the way I view the world and interact with others. Yes, my childhood was very tough because I was medicated and misunderstood but had I been born 50 years ago, I would have been shipped off to an asylum!

Thank God we're making some progress as a society at least.

[femmeInterrupted]

Mental: A History of the Madhouse is a BBC documentary film released in 2010 that sheds light on the mental asylums of the United Kingdom. Earlier in the 20th century mental asylums were places for the morally and mentally deprived; madness was considered to be nothing more than an act of god on the unfortunate and that is the reason why asylums were created were people who had become mad would be kept separate from the society; it was considered best to keep such people off the streets and this seems like the appropriate thing to do as well. That is why asylums were created.

A famous psychiatrist RD Lang once said that “Insanity is the sane response of living in an insane world.”

Mental: A History of the Madhouse is an intriguing documentary film from BBC, of Britain’s unorthodox mental asylums consisting of the patients and staff who served and were treated in them before they closed.

http://www.thegreatplanet.com/mental...c-documentary/