Interesting. Autism is an example which brings up a lot of the complexities in this whole discussion - in part I suppose because of the huge variation in people at different ends of the spectrum. A friend's brother was severely autistic, and viewing him as having merely different cognitive processing skills really doesn't work as it does for someone at the Asperger's end of the spectrum.
In terms of an attitudinal shift, I wonder whether another possibility might be that some mental illnesses might be viewed as disabilities or defects but the attitude towards having a brain which handles its chemicals defectively isn't at all loaded? Personally I'd be happy saying my brain kind of conked out on the fighting off depression front and yes, it's not working right now without antidepressants, and therefore it's defective. And what of it? Rather than trying to change the language to avoid saying it's anything about my brain which is in any way 'wrong', it's to view that defect as no more significant than the same brain's migraineiness. But it has exactly as little to do with society's inability to accommodate those differences/defects in each case. (Granted, my depression is far from being a major disability, but I've worn out B's willingness to okay every comment which mentions her atm!)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-14 03:13 pm (UTC)In terms of an attitudinal shift, I wonder whether another possibility might be that some mental illnesses might be viewed as disabilities or defects but the attitude towards having a brain which handles its chemicals defectively isn't at all loaded? Personally I'd be happy saying my brain kind of conked out on the fighting off depression front and yes, it's not working right now without antidepressants, and therefore it's defective. And what of it? Rather than trying to change the language to avoid saying it's anything about my brain which is in any way 'wrong', it's to view that defect as no more significant than the same brain's migraineiness. But it has exactly as little to do with society's inability to accommodate those differences/defects in each case. (Granted, my depression is far from being a major disability, but I've worn out B's willingness to okay every comment which mentions her atm!)