| Date: | Sun, 6 Aug 2000 11:23:10 -0700 |
| To: | "MHOCCA List" <mhocca@egroups.com> |
| From: | "Andrew Phelps" <starfish@northcoast.com> |
| Subject: | [MHOCCA] trigger reactions |
Dick Ratledge wrote:
I had an interesting exchange with the officer that was sent out to talk to me. He has similar problems with the local MH Department. Ironically the fact that they don’t have Mobile Crisis may be helping clients here because the police side with clients rather than the system.I have communicated privately to Dick and Susan my concern regarding their situation. I trust they won’t take amiss my interpretive remarks here regarding the logic of things.
What happens when clients get triggered by intense adversarial incidents with the system? The WIC 5150 law provides a criterion of “dangerous to self or others.” Of course this is not equitable because ‘normal’ people whose rage is not labelled/controlled and is generally not even self-reflective are not judged equally. It’s kind of like we have to do it ‘with our clothes off’.
I advocate the development/construction of a ‘client psychology’ that will explain the rational component of people’s reaction to triggering. And can be used to support them in the presence of these stressors. The model hehehe that conventional behavior and presuppositions constitute ‘rationality’ is the bigotry of our times. All this is generally unspoken and what we get is ‘blame’: In Dick’s case, the officer himself had become 'hip’ to this.
We have constructed — thanks to Maria Maceira, B.J. Morganti, and others — a new discussion on ‘client culture’. But we can move even further in the direction of ‘rewriting the rules’ if can fight for and establish our own standards of psychological truth.
Respectfully
Andrew Phelps
