If I wrote about every example of leftist stupidity I encountered, I’d have to spend all my time publishing new posts to this blog. I do have better things to do, but once in a while, I see one that’s so exceedingly ridiculous I simply can’t resist.
Lam Vo, of Vox Magazine, believes that changing nomenclature, and categorization policies, are proof that race is a “social construct.” It never occurs to him that race is a valid biological concept, but ethnicity is fluid, and often overlaps with race. Hence, the term race can have more than one meaning.
Let’s apply Vo’s reasoning to mental illness. Now one of the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders, ADHD wasn’t even officially recognized until the 1960’s. A person with those symptoms might have been diagnosed with “hyperkinetic impulse disorder” prior to that.
If you were gay prior to 1974, your sexuality would have been considered a mental illness. The term “gay” for “homosexual” didn’t even catch on until fairly recently. According to Wikipedia:
In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite, Sapphic, Uranian, homophile, lesbian, gay, two-spirit, same-sex attracted and homosexual. Some of these words are specific to women, some to men, and some can be used of either. Gay people may also be identified under the umbrella terms queer and LGBT.
Not all of the terms that have been used to describe same-sex sexuality are synonyms for the modern term homosexuality. The word homosexual itself had different connotations for those who used it 100 years ago to what it does today…
Kleptomania, wasn’t recognized as a bona fide mental disorder until the 19th century. Also, according to Wikipedia:
By 1890, a large body of case material on kleptomania had been developed. Hysteria, imbecility, cerebral defect, and menopause were advanced as theories to explain these seemingly nonsensical behaviors, and many linked kleptomania to immaturity, given the inclination of young children to take whatever they want. These French and German observations later became central to psychoanalytic explanations of kleptomania.
A 2013 article by Market Watch lists 15 newly recognized mental disorders for that year. We’re told:
The DSM-5, which informs the way psychiatrists prescribe drugs, comes with 15 new diagnoses—including hoarding and cannabis withdrawal—while eliminating and combining others. “Sexual aversion disorder,” for example, has been redacted from legitimate diagnoses because of “rare use and lack of supporting research,” according to the APA. (Until the 1970s, the manual listed homosexuality as a disorder.)
The nomenclature, and methodology, of psychology is more dynamic than that of racial science. If Mr. Vo considers race to be a “social construct” due to government’s, and society’s, ever changing attitudes toward it, then mental illness should definitely be a “social construct.” See above for “proof.”
Since Vox is only interested in lecturing us, not in real dialog, there is no comment option for the original article.
