Posted by Elizabeth on May 16, 2001, at 17:52:49
In reply to Re: Re warning on methodone thread, posted by Dr. Bob on May 12, 2001, at 0:42:23
> > the far worse offense was in accusing someone who was presenting a point of view, of being a pusher and analyzing her "avoidance" based on no factual information.
>
> "Pusher" has different connotations that I don't think apply here.I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. Could you elaborate? When someone calls someone else a "pusher" in this context, it sounds to me like they're calling that person a drug dealer. *Maybe* it didn't occur to the person who said it that that's how it sounds. *Maybe* the person just meant they thought that someone else was "pushing" a particular treatment on another person. But I think those are really big "maybes."
> But I agree, it would've been better to avoid the "avoidance" comment, but I guess I didn't think it crossed the line.
It sounds like amateur psychoanalysis to me. < g >
Seriously, I think a major issue in psychiatry is the use of putatively "objective" diagnoses to convey subjective feelings of dislike or insults. (Defense mechanisms could be considered a psychoanalytic type of "diagnosis.") A few examples of things that mental health professionals do (and amateurs follow suit):
* saying that a kid has "oppositional defiant disorder" (meaning he's a pain in the *ss)
* or that an adult has a "personality disorder" (connoting that he or she is frustrating and/or that s/he is to be blamed for his/her failure to respond to treatment)
* or that a drug addict has "antisocial personality disorder" (because he had to commit crimes in order to obtain drugs illegally)
* or that a woman has "PMS" (meaning that the speaker thinks that she's a b*tch)
> > Are you showing a bit of a bias here?
>
> Not here, I don't think. But those who contribute more may be treated more leniently, and those who contribute less, more strictly.In theory I sort of disagree with this, but in practise, new or unknown people are more likely to be troublemakers or trolls. So I guess I can understand the reasoning behind keeping a closer watch and a tighter leash on newcomers, even though the idea bothers me.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:1158
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20010315/msgs/1194.html