Skies of Baghdad

From: Andrew Phelps <phelps@cwnet.com>

To: RadPsyNet-Members@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Mon May 26 23:14 PDT

Subject: [RadPsyNet-Members] still, assumptions

 

Hi

Thanks for your continuing dialogue here.

On Mon May 26 22:50 GMT, Jjj sent:

What I meant by "victims" is that these people feel bad enough that they'd probably been victimized by people in their environments. No, these people at least tend to be victims of something man-made.

The most important thing is what people are about, not managing them. If they are 'victimized' they are also folks who were trying to follow their own "path with heart." Their life-programs need to be cherished.

 

And yes, I've seen instance after instance of this sort of victim-blaming, but if I went into it, that would really be wordy!  I really do think that it would suffice to say that you could see this sort of logic in any self-help book, that correcting victims (of people, not diseases) is self-help and self-empowerment, while correcting the morally responsible is anti-freedom and naïve.

I don't understand this. The practice of "self-help" is deep in the "client/survivor" movement, but it has limits, because "dignity" is often subordinated to bureaucratic considerations. Unless and until "behavior management" is straightened out so as embrace "creative maladjustment," as M.L. King Jr. says, true empowerment is limited by this process.

It's absolutely necessary to engage the matter of those morally responsible. It's not "anti-freedom" but excessive responses do happen. Engaging is extremely difficult and learning how to do this in a positive way ("coalition") is the ambient problem we're facing. Could we work together?

In psychdiagnosis.net Paula Caplan supports the project of Congressional hearings on psychiatric diagnosis. Hard to get that. But "rankism" must be challenged and ultimately that will build coalition between the "client/survivors" and others involved in social justice activism.

 

Andrew