[Twila2]

Would We Have Drugged Up Einstein? How Anti-Authoritarianism is Deemed a Mental Health

Here's an interesting article about conformity, anti-authoritarianism and the potential for mass enslavement.



In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with hundreds of people previously diagnosed by other professionals with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, anxiety disorder and other psychiatric illnesses, and I am struck by 1) how many of those diagnosed are essentially anti-authoritarians; and 2) how those professionals who have diagnosed them are not.

Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority—sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.

Some activists lament how few anti-authoritarians there appear to be in the United States. One reason could be that many natural anti-authoritarians are now psychopathologized and medicated before they achieve political consciousness of society’s most oppressive authorities.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/story/154225/wo ... th_problem

[BartSimpson]

"Oppositional Defiance Disorder" is a diagnosis straight out of the Soviet Union and IMHO anyone imposing this diagnosis on anyone else absolutely needs to be shot as the threat to liberty that they are.

Because questioning authority is the duty of a free people. It is NOT a mental disorder.

[Zipperfish]

Like many of these types of developmental disorders, ODD is overwhelmingly diagnosed in boys. And yet none of the purported causes indicate why this wouold be so. They should consider renaming the disorder "being a boy."

[PluggyRug]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Like many of these types of developmental disorders, ODD is overwhelmingly diagnosed in boys. And yet none of the purported causes indicate why this wouold be so. They should consider renaming the disorder "being a boy."

Those were the exact word from my wife after a school incident with my grandson.

"Boys will be boys".

[Twila2]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Because questioning authority is the duty of a free people. It is NOT a mental disorder.

Is this a original BartSimpson original quote? If so, you ought to trademark it. It's good.

[Twila2]

Twila2 Twila2:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Because questioning authority is the duty of a free people. It is NOT a mental disorder.

Is this a original BartSimpson original quote? If so, you ought to trademark it. It's good.

We're so quick to label every action that we seem to also feel the need to then "correct" an action.

To me, these 'conditions' sound more like parental control issues. We've forgotten that in order for children to learn who they are, what they are capable of, and just how far they should go, they have to be able to make choices and mistakes.

[JaredMilne]

This is a very important issue, but it also connects to something that I've been wondering about for a while-namely, when the anti-authoritarians themselves become the authorities.

Pierre Trudeau always portrayed himself as a contrarian, going "against the current" of popular opinion, particularly the current of most of his fellow Quebec intellectuals. His writings criticizing Quebec nationalism and separatism were what eventually led him into politics. Again, in the Meech Lake and Charlottetown debates, he portrayed himself as fighting the opinion of the elites who he said supported the accords, attacking them as "appeasers" of the separatists.

However, Quebec political scientist Léon Dion, father of the more famous Stéphane, wryly pointed out that some of the defenders of the federal status quo, like Trudeau, could themselves be very intolerant of any dissent to their vision. An undercurrent of this, coupled with a certain veiled contempt and disgust, also surfaces in some of the writings of staunch Trudeau supporters like Ron Graham or Max and Monique Nemni, portraying Trudeau's critics and opponents as lesser men who lacked his vision and integrity.

One can also see it in some circles in Alberta. Albertans have long been leaders in challenging the federal status quo, through political movements like the Progressives, the United Farmers, Social Credit and the Reform Alliance. However, we don't always express the same support for dissenters within our borders. I have read about Liberal and NDP supporters living in some parts of rural Alberta who have gotten the cold shoulder from friends who find out their political affiliations, and then there are jackasses like Craig Chandler, who infamously said that newcomers to Alberta should either vote Conservative or get out, something that attracted disgust from progressives and conservatives alike.

It raises the question-how many anti-authoritarians, if and when they gain the reins of power, end up being just as intolerant of dissenting voices and rabble-rousers who question their authority and ideas?

[Jabberwalker]

[see: Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell]

[Thanos]

I reactivated my call blocking service on the landline specifically because some of Craig Chandler's assholes started calling me at home. That rotten grandstanding hack's a disgrace to everything Albertan and Western conservatism ever stood for. He's a classic example of a "rebel" and "troublemaker" being nothing more really than a deceptive and lying demagogue.

[Jabberwalker]

... trade 'em for Rob Ford?

[Regina]

Pile of poo.

[Public_Domain]