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 morrowasted
 
Registered: 10/30/09
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 Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus   2
#26513293 - 03/02/20 07:37 PM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Decolonizing mental health: The importance of an oppression-focused mental health system
This article essentially argues that the mental health system frequently minimizes the problems of black and brown people by attributing their suffering to personal, internal reasons rather than external, systemic reasons. Cultural identity/solidarity and resolution of those external oppressive forces may resolve many of supposed cases of mental health problems experienced by those people.
Highlights to keep the OP brief (the whole thing is worth reading though):
Quote:
“We say that somebody is struggling because they visually are depressed or they’re going through their individual grief or individual struggle and we don’t often think about pain in the context of historical forces or social structures or cultural dynamics,” says Khúc...
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“I really believe that our understanding of therapy needs to shift out of it only being a problem, an issue, with the brain,” says Mullan. “I also believe that Indigenous work and spirit work needs to be more included as a form of therapy, that it shouldn’t be considered that only one-on-one therapy in an office with a licensed person is therapeutic work.”
Khúc stresses this work is important for everyone — not just people of colour.
“I think that decolonization practice has to come out of communities of colour but the idea is that it benefits everybody because it takes mental health and puts it back in the hands of communities,” says Khúc. “All communities would benefit from it being in their hands and not in the hands of so-called experts.”
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morrowasted
Registered: 10/30/09
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: morrowasted] 1
#26513330 - 03/02/20 07:56 PM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Obviously fixing all of society is the ideal solution. We can't do that, of course.
The point is really just for medical personnel to acknowledge that it's dismissive to say , for example, that a young hispanic woman from an immigrant who had a physically abusive father, 5 brothers- two of whom raped her before she was 10 years old, in addition to several other people later- who has a lack of hope about the future or a sense of solidarity with either one's parents' culture or the culture of her country of residence, is suffering for reasons that can be resolved through things like one on one therapy or medications.
Medicalizing social problems minimizes them. No, we can't fix everything, but by becoming increasingly conscientious we can make (and have made) progress.
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 TheFakeSunRa
your good friend <3
Registered: 03/02/05
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Loc: Pelican Bay SHU Program
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: morrowasted] 1
#26513863 - 03/03/20 03:44 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
spirit work needs to be more included as a form of therapy
Yikes.
Mental health care is already polluted enough with non-scientific bullshit.
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Space is the Place
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viraldrome
Mayor of Cracktown
Registered: 09/21/18
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: morrowasted]
#26513873 - 03/03/20 04:01 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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"According to a 2018 study published in World Psychiatry, scientists suggest trauma can be passed down to subsequent generations through an enduring change in the function of DNA. This change is epigenetic, as opposed to genetic. That means the structure of the DNA itself isn’t changed, but the expression of the DNA is. This can have a lasting effect on the individual and their offspring."
What a crock of shit. The generation of Jews after the holocaust seem just fine, they probably just walked it off. Intergenerational trauma sounds like an excuse to me. If you had a traumatic childhood that's one thing, but your grandparents going thru shit is not why you are fucked today.
It's trendy in Canada to incorporate native spirtual nonsense into our justice system, its not working, smudging ceremonies and sweat lodges are stupid old traditions that hold no value and certainly don't rehabilitate people. I hold the same skepticism they will be of any value in mental health either.
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Babylon
Shaman
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: viraldrome]
#26513895 - 03/03/20 04:47 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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I'd say the same is true of poor white folks. The mental health field is overwhelmingly skewed to taking care of crazy rich people. I suppose that makes sense, since you aren't going to make money helping poor crazy people.
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Babylon
Shaman
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: TheFakeSunRa]
#26513898 - 03/03/20 04:49 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
TheFakeSunRa said:
Quote:
spirit work needs to be more included as a form of therapy
Yikes.
Mental health care is already polluted enough with non-scientific bullshit.
More science applied to spirit work as a therapy technique would be a nice thing.
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TheFakeSunRa
your good friend <3
Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 14,920
Loc: Pelican Bay SHU Program
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: Babylon]
#26513914 - 03/03/20 05:35 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Spirits aren’t real.
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Space is the Place
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Babylon
Shaman
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: TheFakeSunRa]
#26513935 - 03/03/20 06:20 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
TheFakeSunRa said:
Spirits aren’t real.
That's a rather unscientific approach. Do you have any evidence for that assertion?
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psi
TOAST N' JAM
Registered: 09/06/99
Posts: 27,933
Loc: 905 
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: TheFakeSunRa] 2
#26514149 - 03/03/20 10:15 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
TheFakeSunRa said:
Quote:
spirit work needs to be more included as a form of therapy
Yikes.
Mental health care is already polluted enough with non-scientific bullshit.
I feel the opposite way, I don't think science is necessarily always an appropriate tool to address mental health to begin with.
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BAN OP 2021
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 Asante
low dose - high adventure
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: psi] 3
#26514160 - 03/03/20 10:20 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Its a fact that for the same problems, black people tend to get harsher/more unpleasant medications. They often get an antipsychotic where another would get a mere benzo.
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psi
TOAST N' JAM
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: Asante]
#26514189 - 03/03/20 10:33 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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I've heard from a number of people that there often does not seem to be much of an objective reason to give someone a schizophrenia diagnosis over a bipolar diagnosis with a given set of symptoms, and that sometimes they will actually threaten the schizophrenia diagnosis when they don't like you.
Also, compare how you are treated if you experience psychosis as, say, someone who has studied philosophy at the postgrad level and have that vernacular to express your experiences (I know a guy who had this experience), vs if you are somebody who has indoctrinated yourself with hours of flat earth and conspiracy videos. The person who has devoted their time to studying less crazy sounding stuff will come off as less crazy.
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psi
TOAST N' JAM
Registered: 09/06/99
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Loc: 905
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: TheFakeSunRa] 2
#26514196 - 03/03/20 10:44 AM (11 months, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
TheFakeSunRa said:
Spirits aren’t real.
They don't need to be for approaches/techniques making reference to them to be effective.
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BAN OP 2021
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morrowasted
Registered: 10/30/09
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: TheFakeSunRa] 2
#26514308 - 03/03/20 11:50 AM (11 months, 18 days ago) |
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Quote:
TheFakeSunRa said:
Spirits aren’t real.
I think you're misinterpreting the meaning of the word spirit. They mean something more like the "human spirit". As in, when you're culturally isolated you feel "dispirited", and regaining that connection "restores your spirit". I'm a scientist at heart but I don't think reductionism is always or even ever the best approach for dealing with problematic consciousness.
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morrowasted
Registered: 10/30/09
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: psi] 2
#26514312 - 03/03/20 11:52 AM (11 months, 18 days ago) |
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Quote:
psi said:
I've heard from a number of people that there often does not seem to be much of an objective reason to give someone a schizophrenia diagnosis over a bipolar diagnosis with a given set of symptoms, and that sometimes they will actually threaten the schizophrenia diagnosis when they don't like you.
Also, compare how you are treated if you experience psychosis as, say, someone who has studied philosophy at the postgrad level and have that vernacular to express your experiences (I know a guy who had this experience), vs if you are somebody who has indoctrinated yourself with hours of flat earth and conspiracy videos. The person who has devoted their time to studying less crazy sounding stuff will come off as less crazy.
https://iai.tv/articles/does-mental-illness-exist-auid-1280?
Does ‘Mental Illness’ Exist?
The Problem with Psychiatric Diagnosis
‘Reliability’ describes the likelihood that when faced with the same patient and an agreed list of criteria, clinicians will come up with the same diagnosis. In relation to psychiatric diagnosis, reliability is extremely low – which is one of the reasons why people typically collect a whole list of labels in their journey through the mental health system. But an even more important issue is the validity of such categories. There are different meanings of validity, but essentially it is about whether the categories actually describe something in the real world. Are there, for example, established patterns of chemical imbalances, genetic flaws or other bodily malfunctions which correspond to these labels, and are causally linked to the ‘symptoms’, as we would expect if we were diagnosing pneumonia, or kidney failure, or breast cancer?
Despite decades of research, and despite what you may have read in the media, none has ever been identified. Instead, we are offered a series of circular explanations. If we ask ‘Why does this person have mood swings/hear hostile voices?’ the answer is ‘Because they have ‘schizophrenia/bipolar disorder’. And if we then ask how we know they have ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘bipolar disorder’, the answer is: ‘Because they hear hostile voices/have mood swings.’ There is no exit from this circle via a blood test, scan or other investigation which might confirm or disconfirm this diagnosis. To take a parallel from Biblical times, people used to be convinced that disturbing behaviour could be explained by the presence of evil spirits. This might have been a reliable judgement – everyone in the community might have endorsed it. But was it valid? Nowadays, we do not think so. Today, however, we are convinced that extreme distress is a sign of, in effect, possession by entities such as ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘personality disorder’.
A further problem is that the so-called ‘symptoms’ are not examples of bodily dysfunction, such as pain, rashes and so on, but consist of a ragbag of social judgements about people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour. For example, someone – usually a woman – diagnosed with ‘borderline personality disorder’ has been assessed as displaying ‘inappropriate, intense anger’ and ‘a pattern of unstable personal relationships.’ But we know that women who are so labelled very often have a history of abuse, which may make their so-called ‘symptoms’ entirely understandable.
Similarly, there is growing evidence that the hostile voices said to be a symptom of ‘schizophrenia’ may reflect earlier unprocessed traumas, such as bullying or domestic violence. And at the less severe end of the spectrum, the desperation and hopelessness that might be diagnosed as ‘depression’ is known to occur more often in personal and social contexts that give people very good reasons to be miserable. These histories are routinely obscured and unaddressed within a system that re-interprets them as evidence of medical illness or disorder.
In essence, then, a diagnosis turns ‘people with problems’ into ‘patients with illnesses’. Reactions to receiving a diagnosis vary, and some people say that it offered welcome relief from guilt and isolation. For others, though, it constitutes the first step in a lifelong career as psychiatric patient, with everything that is implied – long-term use of psychiatric drugs, stigma, and social exclusion. Some have vividly described the profound disjunction in their sense of identity as this new version of reality is imposed on them: ‘I walked into (the psychiatrist’s office) as Don and walked out a schizophrenic … I remember feeling afraid, demoralised, evil.’
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Babylon
Shaman
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: psi]
#26515253 - 03/03/20 08:54 PM (11 months, 18 days ago) |
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Quote:
psi said:
Quote:
TheFakeSunRa said:
Quote:
spirit work needs to be more included as a form of therapy
Yikes.
Mental health care is already polluted enough with non-scientific bullshit.
I feel the opposite way, I don't think science is necessarily always an appropriate tool to address mental health to begin with.
I wholeheartedly disagree with both of you, medicine needs to be scientific, there need to be properly done studies to verify that techniques are effective and don't pose the risk of making things worse, or if they do that those risks are worth it. Spirit work, including exorcisms, posession, and other traditional magic can be valid therapy techniques, the existence of spirits isn't required for those techniques to be effective. They aren't sufficiently studied and more trials, with proper scientific criteria, would be a very good step. Traditional spirit work definitely has risks, and we need to understand if those risks are worth the rewards.
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morrowasted
Registered: 10/30/09
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: Babylon]
#26515275 - 03/03/20 09:06 PM (11 months, 18 days ago) |
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Babylon, see my reply two before yours.
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Babylon
Shaman
Registered: 05/15/11
Posts: 442
Last seen: 3 months, 6 days
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Re: Good article on "decolonization" of mental health- shifting to an external focus [Re: morrowasted]
#26515277 - 03/03/20 09:07 PM (11 months, 18 days ago) |
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I saw it. I don't disagree, but I am also specifically advocating for working with spirits, even if they don't exist it does in fact work.
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