OCD Action

Tess
Member

This morning I heard John Simpson on TV referring to Colonel Gaddafi as "clearly a nutcase" and it reminded me of a similar expression by Andrew Marr on TV a while back when he referred to someone, possibly Saddam Hussein as "bonkers". Over the course of my life I have seen many commonly used words become unacceptable and other words which were considered socially unacceptable become commonplace. My grandfather who was a manager of an engineering firm in London used to instantly dismiss any employee who uttered a certain 4 letter word which is now part of common speech and today he would be hauled over the coals in an unfair dismissal tribunal. There are words we dare not even type on this forum which were commonly used a generation ago. And has anyone noticed that official forms no longer ask for your Christian name, it is now your "first" or "given" name?
But although this has infiltrated just about every aspect of discrimination from ethnicity to sexual preference why is mental health still commonly referred to in offensive, derogatory and degrading terms? Am I alone in feeling this needs to change and the people who need educating first are those who are most in the public eye, such as on the BBC? And what are the words which need to be discredited? I will start by suggesting "bonkers", "nutter" and "looney".

Fri Oct 21 2011 9:42:28 #
Cuthbert ffoliott
Moderator

Good and thought-provoking call, dear Tess. Indeed, it does not help people with psychiatric disorders at all, if they are being addressed with derogatory terms. However, what should we think, then, of TV comedy where a normal person who acted foolishly is named in such a way? And where should we draw the line? Think of the word 'mad', as in: the mad scientist. Or: 'instable'.

Now, I am totally with you in a hypothetical case of a patient with a mental disorder, who is called a 'nutcase', or 'bonkers'. Which automatically would apply to Moammar al Khadafi being named a nutcase - the man very obviously suffered from some form of psychosis, with severe delusions of grandeur. He could only 'lead' his country for 42 years with extreme violence, torture, and murder. That speaks volumes about his psychiatric condition. Roughly the same goes for Saddam Hussein. Calling those persons nutcases on public television isn't necessary at all - we already knew their illnesses to be the case.

Apart from these two examples: most people with mental problems are modest, shy folks. The public at large (including many without a proper education and/or common decency) often knows very well whom to insult, i.e. the most easy prey it can detect on instinct. People unfortunately have mean and indirect ways to vent their own problems (hidden anger, jealousy, frustration); and insulting those with a psychiatric disorder is such a way - the response is mostly weak or absent. Patients can't correct their detractors all of the time, if they can at all.

So what's to do? I think that a good start would be to correct those in our immediate vicinity who overstep the line of decency. Furthermore, we might send e-mails to broadcasters who go too far from our perspective.

Oh, and before I forget: I truly detest the (mostly American) motion pictures in which not a single line gets spoken without (multiple) use of the f-word. I never could get used to this phenomenon, and never will either. It is such a gutter thing... and perhaps it betrays the total inability of the scriptwriters to come up with a good dialogue. Perhaps this cultural relativism is a sign of what's wrong with Western societies... where one cannot see too much difference any more between a CEO of a bank, and a robber.

Ciao, Cuthbert.

PS: to make insults towards patients anathema might pave the way for treating them better, i.e. respecting their situation, and helping them with funding and materials to improve their condition. Changing the verbal approach is all well and good, but I just thought of the Indians in the U.S. - they got called 'Native Americans' at one point, and now it's 'First Nation Americans', but as far as I know, many of them still live in miserable circumstances...

Fri Oct 21 2011 13:13:50 #
wannabefree
Member

Hi Tess, Hi Cuthbert, I too agree that words used in our society leave a lot to be desired... A few weeks ago, I was standing at a bus stop, and someone was talking on a mobile phone... The words they were using were very profane, leaving me wondering what the person 'at the other end' would possibly be saying... I guess TV is the main culprit here, as people follow their idols, and films too... I use a bit of slang now and again, but the now almost 'every other word' of what used to be called cuss words, is showing a general breakdown of the language in common use...
People swearing in the street too, I find it upsetting...
As far as the words used to describe mental illness, they are often awful, and do nothing to make us feel better about ourselves... Incidentally, I believe the word lunatic comes from the word lunar, because it was once believed that the phases of the moon affected certain individuals on earth. I wouldn't know if the phases of the moon affect me, perhaps they do, but knowledge of that sort of thing does nothing to help me...
wannabe

Fri Oct 21 2011 14:58:54 #
Cuthbert ffoliott
Moderator

Hello Wannabe -

yes, TV and the movies have a lot to answer for. The media have such an immense power to 'liberate' dirty language, I mean: to make it somehow socially acceptable to many. People think: hey, if so-and-so can talk that way, I can too! And let's not forget certain forms of popular music, notably of the rap variety - IMHO there never was any form of entertainment that so glamourised violence, crime, showing off with jewelry, drugs, and prostitution. Many 'critics' raved about these 'artists' describing their everyday reality - I did not buy that, not one second.

I find 'breakdown of language in common use' a very apt way of phrasing things. Speaking a full, elegant, complete and decent sentence seems to be a thing of the past. And that is sad. You don't have to be a pessimist to notice these changes.

And as far as I know, you are right about the provenance of the word 'lunatic'.

Ciao, Cuthbert in Holland.

Fri Oct 21 2011 15:33:32 #
wannabefree
Member

Hi Cuthbert, thank you for your kind words...
wannabe

Fri Oct 21 2011 20:18:33 #
BT
Member

I truly don’t think we have moved that much further forward since the days of actual lunatic asylums, in the way psychiatric illness is portrayed. I feel that while staff in psychiatric hospitals use derogatory terms (and many do) there is little hope of change.

With reference to Saddam Hussein - I found it particularly distressing that terms like ‘bonkers’ etc were often tagged on to reports of his OCD. I lost a friend due to that. Before that, she viewed OCD as a few mild, harmless quirks (not an ideal nor accurate analysis, but at least she wasn’t afraid of me, prior to the media announcements).

I find it amazing, that at a time when PC has gone over the top in many areas (Tess’ example of Christian names etc) that those with any psychiatric condition can be subjected to insulting names and ridicule. One other example of political correctness gone mad, is a pensioner who faces prison for having her childhood golly sitting on her windowsill. Television presenters can call us virtually any name they choose, without even a reprimand.

Sat Oct 22 2011 11:48:55 #
Tess
Member

Nicely put BT - we used to know a driving instructor in Reading named Ken Whiteman who was refused permission to call his business Whiteman School of Motoring so he registered it as Blackways and that was deemed acceptable! It has been normal practice for so long to use degrading terms to describe people with mental health conditions that society considers these terms perfectly acceptable and anyone who objects obviously has a chip on their shoulder. Yet the medical terminology is becoming a little more enlightened - schizophrenia is now almost a dirty word and manic depression has evolved into bi-polar, so maybe in time things will improve.

Sat Oct 22 2011 17:50:46 #
Tess
Member

Incidentally I did write to Andrew Marr but did I get a reply or an acknowledgement???? You guessed right, nothing.

Sat Oct 22 2011 17:52:56 #