I'm not a therapist. And neither are your friends, family or those who know you. But it was part of my training and the same problems that plague that field are worse today.
Over the last decade the amount of information on psychology and behavior has increased online and the arm chair psychologist are coming out of the woodwork.
To begin with, it's one of the soft sciences, based on communication and rarely on hard science. This is not to say that it's not extremely useful and helpful. Addressing and openly talking about behaviors that are a little different so that we as a society can support and accept is a giant leap forward.
One of the most innocuous examples is the trend that teens are taking their plush toys public as their comfort animal. Well, why not?
Not so innocuous is the mass diagnosis because the public has read or heard some talk show/media/journalist describe someone as having a neurodivergent disorder. About a decade ago it was Aspergers the example given was Sheldon Cooper in Big Bang. No. The character is a stereotypical highly intelligent socially awkward physics student. Then it was Bill Gates. Also no. It's also no longer called that but ASD, since it's a spectrum. The term came up again in recent years because of Hans Asperger and I'll leave it up to readers to look him up (ugh) and come to their own conclusions.
Someone quite interesting is Temple Grandin who is on the Autism spectrum.
Then came everyone is a narcissist, when they are in fact describing psychopathology and the currently very cool and trendy ADHD. Currently trending in Hollyweird. An astronomer who I enjoy reading, diagnosed himself with it because he needs coffee shops and background music to write his books. As do I, helps me focus, doesn't mean it's ADHD.
It takes away from the people who do suffer from it. Overdiagnosis and too much self analysis also minimizes what actual victims and survivors go through.
Please share your thoughts.
If there's any further interest please let me know and I'll provide more info in future posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment