Posted by James K on January 5, 2006, at 21:44:01
In reply to The social construction of (some) mental illness, posted by alexandra_k on January 5, 2006, at 19:16:04
> I was reading this last night and I thought I'd put excerpts up here incase anyone had any thoughts on it...
---I love having new concepts introduced into my head. New ways of seeing the world.
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> According to Hacking the modern symptomology of MPS evolved hand in hand with theories of the disorder. By channelling their distress into forms recognized by current theory, individuals were able to gain social acceptance as “sick” and to receive positive feedback from therapists, support groups, and so forth. In the early days of the modern MPS epidemic individuals rarely presented with the full range of symptoms. Distressed individuals were “trained” in the production of MPS symptoms, first by expert therapists, and later by a voluntary movement of laypersons. Today, with the help of literature and television talk shows, patients are able to produce the symptoms without individual tuition. MPS has become part of the local culture in countries suffering the MPS epidemic.
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---I wonder if there is any difference between the early "classic" mps or mpd (is there a difference) where a person had two or more distinct personalities that may or not be aware of each other (a very rare and severe condition), and this more society and therapist induced diagnosis? I am not a student so my knowledge is limited and varied.* The syndrome consists of indiscriminate attacks on others and usually culminates in the killing of the person who runs amok.
---suicide by cop.
* The man running amok is not pretending to be in a frenzy, but he would not be in the frenzy unless he had learned that this is an appropriate response to certain unbearable social pressures. He is acting out a social role, part of which is that he is not in control of his actions.
---The idea of an societal expectation induced psychosis fascinates me.
It might be argued that a similar syndrome now exists in Western culture. Men who believe that none of their options allows them self-respect exhibit a rather stereotypical pattern of behaviour, probably derived from contemporary action films. They shoot at a large group of people, not necessarily people associated with their misfortunes, before being shot or shooting themselves. They purport to be “out of control” and are treated as such by society, yet their behaviour is under the fairly precise control of a recently developed model of how one might behave in such a situation.>
> …
---It seems this first showed up as "going postal", but now mainly seems to be "killing my ex-wife".---I'm going to have to think about how this may relate to another concept that I've bought into involving a kind of death before dishonour attitude that leads to violence or murder over trivial or misunderstood slights.
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That society might also make some cases of MPS into one alternative way of being and others into another alternative way of being . social practices in which it is embedded (Hacking 1995).
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The general acceptance of Hacking’s analysis of multiple personality syndrome would have a corrosive effect on the social practices of the modern MPS community.
> hmm...
> i'm thinking there might be some confusion around whether mps is considered to be a social construction in the second or the third sense...---I'm now in way over my head, but mightn't what I might refer to as "classic mps" be of the second, and the common 1990's version be of the third?
> there is more but i thought i'd see if there was a general interest first...
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---the fascinating part to me has to do with the concept of "reality of behavior including mental illness to the point of psychosis being capable of being produced by society's subconcious belief systems." Or I may be missing some or all of the point - or making up my own point.---It is putting me in a frame of mind of Philip K. Dick's more advanced fiction. The second time I've thought of him this week on this board.
This is too hard for my underexercised brain,
James_k
poster:James K
thread:595576
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051229/msgs/595647.html