Author: Oliver Y.
Date: 21:44:21 02/24/99
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Why do we have psychiatrists, if anyone can diagnose/pronounce someone they have never met to be mentally ill? Of what value is the neophyte's opinion? I realize the implied argument is difficult to defend [based on the comments I have read], but we don't want to do the easy things now, do we? If I demonstrated to you carefully why I thought Fischer is certainly not mentally ill, I would be in for plenty of abuse. Here are some clues. The conventional definition of mental illness is incomplete, operational, subject to change with the times, applicable only to nonoutliers. Examine the conventional interpretation of belief systems affected by racism and religious beliefs, and you will understand better the above sentence. Truth and language, as administered by judges and psychiatry [religion played a larger role in the past] is used to maintain power and order. This is not an original idea, BTW. Sorry about the awkward style, I am as always working from first principles. Concept: Incompleteness. Concept: Frame of Reference. So there are no flames. I submit no opinion on the issues re Fischer here.
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