Assuming a diagnostic identity won't save you from structural harm, erase your trauma or heal relational deprivation. It won't lead to political uprising or systemic reform, but will just further entrench the widespread depoliticisation/commodification of socially-rooted distress

I am seeing many behaviours that are characteristic of not having fully matured (& therefore that are amendable to change with time & effort), now being captured as life-long neuro-disabilities that need to be accommodated rather than worked through productively. Implications?

We will never solve human misery by medicalising it and treating it as a mental health problem. The younger generation is understandably confused and despondent about the social and personal future on offer. We need to tackle this problem at the root.
#existential

For me, relational deprivation and demoralisation are central drivers to rising youth distress - these are driven by wider structural factors that dismantle community, disrupt intimate connections and make embracing one's future a source of fear not hope.
politico.com/news/2024/04/1…

For Psychology Today (Psychology Today), I wrote about Frantz Fanon, the psychiatric clinic he ran in Algeria, and the excellent new biography by Adam Shatz

psychologytoday.com/us/blog/side-e…

Dr James Davies (PhD) 💭 book “Sedated” is honestly blowing my mind right now. This should be required reading for everyone.

“Psychiatry wasn’t just doctors in hospitals, in clinics...they really made bargains with the state to enhance their authority. Psychiatrists did so by partnering with the military [&] criminal justice system to aid prosecutions of gay people.'
nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-he…

The number of psych-diagnoses has vastly expanded over the last 40 years, with each newly coined 'disorder' creating a fresh and fattening market for treatments. As Robert Spitzer the creator of DSM-III summed it up: 'The pharmaceuticals were delighted with the DSM'.

The struggle against structural injustice/oppression can't be won by retiring into identity silos, where the silo's concerns are privileged above others, as now divisiveness usually ensues while the most effective political tool 'solidarity across difference' is sacrificed.

Instead of using social policy to tackle the systematic drivers of the nation's ever worsening mental health, our politicians call for 'more anti-stigma campaigns, mental-health-aid at work & better access to GPs', as if this is the real solution. You see the problem here, right?

The neurofication of everyday life is set to become hugely profitable for Pharma, with the market for ADHD drugs predicted to reach over $45 Billion annually by 2034.... I don't here the radical left of the movement discussing this....

finance.yahoo.com/news/attention…

One of the greatest findings of 20th century anthropology is that social structures shape psychological structures, and one of the greatest failings of modern psychology is to have almost entirely ignored this.

While appearing radical, neurodivergent identity politics may unintentionally end up cohering with deeper structures of neoliberal oppression. As it joins the pool of divided groups, each contesting for limited resources/accommodations, the source of such limits remains intact.

This article is disappointing. It professes to explain the the rise of AuDHD identity politics, but does nothing of the kind. Instead, it uncritically champions such politics as a sure route to salvation. The shadow of the movement is entirely erased.
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…