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The American Psychiatric Association has more raw, unchecked power than any organization on earth, second only to SCOTUS
They write the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual, literally the yardstick against which human behavior is measured in the West
They write the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual, literally the yardstick against which human behavior is measured in the West
More than any other institution, the APA gets to decide what behaviors & responses are "healthy" and "normal"
They get to decide, at will, the default human condition, the baseline frame for every dispute about rights & harms & who deserves what https://web.archive.org/web/20200406135821/http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/12/01/setting-the-default/
They get to decide, at will, the default human condition, the baseline frame for every dispute about rights & harms & who deserves what https://web.archive.org/web/20200406135821/http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/12/01/setting-the-default/
Medieval Europe didn't defer to the Bible as reflexively as we defer to the DSM - & unlike the Catholic church, the APA can update the DSM whenever they feel like it "to reflect evolving social realities" or whatever
They've done this before:
APA was captured by a secret gay cabal in the 70s that struck homosexuality from the DSM because they didn't *feel* crazy, & now that the culture has caught up to them they brag about it on NPR https://www.thisamericanlife.org/204/81-words
APA was captured by a secret gay cabal in the 70s that struck homosexuality from the DSM because they didn't *feel* crazy, & now that the culture has caught up to them they brag about it on NPR https://www.thisamericanlife.org/204/81-words
Same shift happening now re: trans, & you can see the same tension: being "sick" has its advantages
Deviation is classified as "mental disorder" to bring it under the protective jurisdiction of psychiatry, then declassified to make it Officially Normal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria#Classification_as_a_disorder
Deviation is classified as "mental disorder" to bring it under the protective jurisdiction of psychiatry, then declassified to make it Officially Normal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria#Classification_as_a_disorder
They will claim that all of this is based on studies, but ask yourself how a scientific study can determine what human behavior is healthy & normal
These are questions of value, of what human life is *for* - no amount of looking at beakers or brain scans can answer them
These are questions of value, of what human life is *for* - no amount of looking at beakers or brain scans can answer them
But the APA has official sanction to pretend that their ideologizing & moralizing is Official Serious Science (or Medicine, even better) & beyond question
& literally any institution in America that questions their conclusions is "fringe" or "anti-science"
& literally any institution in America that questions their conclusions is "fringe" or "anti-science"
Of course the only institutions that care enough about social issues to eat that kind of propaganda heat are churches, which further feeds the Religion v Science narrative
But one thing Scott Alexander was great for is pointing out that this stuff just isn't science
But one thing Scott Alexander was great for is pointing out that this stuff just isn't science
We treat the leftward decay of American politics as an inevitability, but note that this is *only* true on social issues - i.e. those issues that fall most naturally under the ambit of psychiatry
They are dominant because they have seized the commanding heights
They are dominant because they have seized the commanding heights
Scott Alexander is pro-LGBT, pro-polyamory, pro-literally everything the cultmarx priesthood wants
His crime is that he's innocent/autistic enough to point out that it is in fact a *priesthood*, & that these positions are ideological rather than scientific
That's why he got got
His crime is that he's innocent/autistic enough to point out that it is in fact a *priesthood*, & that these positions are ideological rather than scientific
That's why he got got
All of which is to say that this is a serious vulnerability, one that they're aware of & concerned about protecting
If it can be discredited, or even if one could just disrupt the reflexive embrace of its pronouncements as doctrine, many possibilities open up
If it can be discredited, or even if one could just disrupt the reflexive embrace of its pronouncements as doctrine, many possibilities open up
COVID has also opened up exploitable cracks
Not in the APA per se, but a growing population is realizing that public health officials - even in "harder" disciplines - are political & error-prone & willing to make shit up
How much more true of something as loose as psychiatry
Not in the APA per se, but a growing population is realizing that public health officials - even in "harder" disciplines - are political & error-prone & willing to make shit up
How much more true of something as loose as psychiatry
And then, as if by magic: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/dyzd57/is-racism-a-mental-illness?utm_content=1594138656&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_twitter
