Schizophrenic! Psychopathic! Where Does It End??
I first observed this pattern during the Gallaudet University Protest. Some supporters of the Jordan/Fernandes Administration on campus would be throwing out derogatory mental diagnoses of the Deaf leaders and certain Deaf protesters of Unity for Gallaudet. They’d say “Oh that person has severe psychological problems”, or “That leader has a history of…..”, etc. I thought to myself, what a despicable tactic, denigrating someone by implying they are mentally ill. It reminds me of the old Soviet method of stigmatizing political leaders, using psychiatrists to file false mental diagnoses as a guise to institutionalize them indefinitely, where they were subjected to ECT, doped to the point of being zombies, and invalidated.
Then I started noticing this pattern in Deaf cyberspace. “That guy is a sociopath! He is very sick and dangerous!!” ” Oh, that person has emotional problems. I think it is….umm, whatcha call it?… bipolar disorder.” “Ignore him as he is a schizophrenic.” “She has borderline personality disorder.” And so on.
A gentle reminder, whenever Deaf people hurl these psychiatric labels at each other in an attempt to destroy the credibility of that person, not only are they hurting these people, they are also harming themselves and ultimately the Deaf Community. Surely we are better than that?
Please think twice before labeling someone as mentally ill in an attempt to destroy them. You are actually damaging the credibility and the status of the Deaf Community.
Is this what you want to do? Do you want the Deaf Community to stand strong? Or weak?
You decide.
Your actions will speak louder than you realize.
Please conduct a respectful discourse, addressing to this topic only. Thanks. Non-constructive or disrespectful posts will be deleted. MZ
P.S. One comment was deleted due to its unwarranted implications. So I need to add this to the list… no accusatory implications are permitted. If you have evidence on specific individuals you imply are ‘guilty’, show it to us.
Please keep in mind: If someone makes an accusation or negative implication to these specific individuals without proof, this person is also hurting the Deaf Community. MZ
I first observed this pattern during the Gallaudet University Protest. Some supporters of the Jordan/Fernandes Administration on campus would be throwing out derogatory mental diagnoses of the Deaf leaders and certain Deaf protesters of Unity for Gallaudet. They’d say “Oh that person has severe psychological problems”, or “That leader has a history of…..”, etc. I thought to myself, what a despicable tactic, denigrating someone by implying they are mentally ill. It reminds me of the old Soviet method of stigmatizing political leaders, using psychiatrists to file false mental diagnoses as a guise to institutionalize them indefinitely, where they were subjected to ECT, doped to the point of being zombies, and invalidated.
Then I started noticing this pattern in Deaf cyberspace. “That guy is a sociopath! He is very sick and dangerous!!” ” Oh, that person has emotional problems. I think it is….umm, whatcha call it?… bipolar disorder.” “Ignore him as he is a schizophrenic.” “She has borderline personality disorder.” And so on.
A gentle reminder, whenever Deaf people hurl these psychiatric labels at each other in an attempt to destroy the credibility of that person, not only are they hurting these people, they are also harming themselves and ultimately the Deaf Community. Surely we are better than that?
Please think twice before labeling someone as mentally ill in an attempt to destroy them. You are actually damaging the credibility and the status of the Deaf Community.
Is this what you want to do? Do you want the Deaf Community to stand strong? Or weak?
You decide.
Your actions will speak louder than you realize.
Please conduct a respectful discourse, addressing to this topic only. Thanks. Non-constructive or disrespectful posts will be deleted. MZ
P.S. One comment was deleted due to its unwarranted implications. So I need to add this to the list… no accusatory implications are permitted. If you have evidence on specific individuals you imply are ‘guilty’, show it to us.
Please keep in mind: If someone makes an accusation or negative implication to these specific individuals without proof, this person is also hurting the Deaf Community. MZ
November 14th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Yeah, it is really disgusting how we as a community treat individuals who are disliked. I honestly think that this kind of behavior will only stop when people start taking others to court for libel/slander.
Because this is what it really is all about. We are slandering and libeling each other. We are destroying each other’s reputations, based on ZERO evidence.
If we really want to have positive social change for our community, and hold ourselves and the hearing accountable for our actions, we need to do that in an ethical manner.
This kind of tactic definitely weakens us, and that’s why I follow my personal code of ethics when I’m fighting for accountability and equality.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Groan.
*shaking my head*
Everyone is different… We all have our own struggles with our own demons and also angels. But yes, it is sad to see some of us trying to belittle or defame some of us.
Ta-ta.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Excellent post!
November 14th, 2008 at 11:35 am
No offense…
I just read an article about Afghan girls getting acided for attending schools, by Talbian hardliners.
That is worse… compared to deaf community’s tendancy to fingerpoint and label other deaf people just because their opinions are not well-received. But there is respect. There is NONE in other countries.
Deaf community… count blessings. ;o)
November 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Psychiatric labels used as weapons can inflict as much damage as acid and other physical tools. The damages are not visible to the eye, however, but that can lead to ostracization from peers, loss of credibility, fear, shame, loss of job opportunities, reduced leadership, and less stability to the community, etc. I think it is safe to say respect isn’t intended when someone hurls a destructive psychological diagnosis on someone else to silence the person.
Of course we all can have different opinions regarding the effects of physical and verbal attacks.
I do not want to minimize the seriousness of the acid attacks. These attacks are atrocious.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Yes, Mishka… the kind of labels are as vicious as physical attacks, since they hurl darts into people’s psyches.
It seems to me some people want to have some power to manipulate other people to get a sense of self-justification.
Well.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
The weird thing about deaf cyberspace is that few v/bloggers or commenters personally know in real life another v/blogger. Dislike tends to grow thru a cyber “grapevine” and becomes distorted when the attacks focus on the person himself and not on what he signed/wrote in a v/blog.
I often wonder if such tactics stem from the way some hearing people have treated deaf people. Hence why some frustrated deaf people in turn project their anger onto other deaf people. We d/Deaf really should try treating each other as human beings first, as we certainly know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of “psycho” and “deaf and dumb” labeling by some hearing people.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Deaf Pundit, I agree. We all keep in mind for the Deaf Community to be healthy, we need to show better tolerance to the diversity of people, ideas, and beliefs AND refrain from personal attacks, including making mental illness diagnoses. As you said, some day someone is going to be slapped with a big slander or libel lawsuit.
Karen, I am glad you understand what I’m trying to say.
Ann C, I think that is the case. I’ve participated many lily-white protests, yet when I covered the Unity for Gallaudet protest, I was often shocked at the intensity of the vile and hateful attacks launched by Fernandes/Jordan supporters. Apparently this wasn’t unusual in minority communities, from what I was told, but I wasn’t used to it. I couldn’t get over how they treated the students with utter contempt, with no respect and dignity to them as human beings. It was like, in their eyes, being culturally Deaf have reduced the students to second-class citizens.
If the Deaf people have been treated that way, they wouldn’t think twice about treating each other the same way. The sad thing is that so many of us know each other in real life, too. It’s very unhealthy and self-destructive.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Hi,
From the way I have been seeing on DVTV, they were only concerned about this specific person, I didn’t see them talk about other people that may be mentally unstable. Then we had commentators come on and saying that it was unacceptable for anyone to label other people as mentally ill or whatever when they didn’t have the credentials to do that. I was happy to see this. It seems that some people took action and spoke out on this.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
They were pointing to this one specific person, I didn’t see that they were pointing at other people, where did you see that in DVTV or deafread?? This person has been driving a wedge in DVTV and making commentators angry. Somehow some of them decided to be sympathetic and said that this person may be mentally unstable and that we should “ignore him” and not to get our feathers ruffled.
It may have been a bad move for this commentator to say this and then several people came up and said that it was not acceptable for anyone to say that they are mentally unstable. In other words, they were trying to analyze the situation and figure out why he was acting this way and to understand his behavior.
It seems that we try to be sympathetic at times but then hearing people do the same thing so it is not fair that we are to be accused of saying the same thing. We all are guilty of this. When a person devivates from society, does crazy things and makes people angry, people are liable to say that something is definitely wrong with this person. Look at JonBenet Ramsey, her mother was accused of being mentally unstable, it was really bad for the media to accuse her. So it is both ways, hearing and deaf people do the same thing. Of course, we should not say anything that will damage their reputation and that we need to be very careful. It is when we come across someone that is “off”, we aren’t quite sure how to react or think.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Hi Deaf Mommy, I know that incident you referred to. That was sticky as we all can see there was some problem with that individual. Others did label him inappropriately, but they have good intentions, telling people to leave him alone. That was resolved by peer pressure and people learned it wasn’t wise to label people.
However, this is not what I meant. I am referring to healthy Deaf people who were attacked and stigmatized in an attempt to oppress and silence them, with their credibility smeared.
I hope that helps clarify what I mean? If not, please let me know.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Hi,
Yes I do understand, it is very common for people to believe that we have mental problems to try to oppress us unfortunately. Especially when we are protesting against something.
I was just citing an example of what transpired in DVTV lately and that we took action in our own community. It goes both ways, either the outside community oppresses us by labeling us or we label someone inside the community. I am not sure how we can stop this from happening except that people who have protested have been called mentally unstable and now they are well-respected and even admired like Joan of Arc or other famous leaders in history.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Labeling is the same thing as name calling and attacking with whatever verbal weapons available. It ranges from calling people “stupid” all the way to “sociopath”. None of it is acceptable, just because it is also done by hearing people and especially by politicians.
We also have no right to be diagnosing other people or dismissing casually based on layman guesses. However, we do have a right to ask why people say these things, when it is baseless, unneccessary and hurtful.
We are a small, almost insular society, so we need to keep higher standards than the larger society so that our community can be a safe, healthy and growth-promoting one. MZ is absolutely accurate in saying that such words can be as harmful as throwing acid.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Yes, any deaf individual could face the “slander” or “character defamation” lawsuit if they do malice.
I was once a victim of smear campaign pretty long time ago when I stood up to the SBG adminstration at Gallaudet University.
The Office of President under IKJ ever smeared me back in the mid-1990s when I criticized IKJ’s apologist stance toward Lew Golan. The deaf secretary warned many people that I was totally a bad person. Excuse moi? *laughable*
That deaf secretary was full of total crap anyway for her constant lyings that she never like JK. The very same deaf secretary was seen hung around with JK and her supporters during last May 2006.
I kinda enjoyed the smear campaign anyway to see the true worst of deaf people anyway.
RLM
November 14th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
MZ –
Good entry. I read Candy’s recent blog to discuss about the protest on Prop 8 in California. A woman, who carried her giant cross, decided to talk with a TV reporter in the protest area. The protesters saw the cross, and then, they stomped on it. It was the two-cross paths that they have caused into a stir.
I understand that the woman have the right to speak for herself as well as the protesters’. The woman was forced to cover her face with the signs by the protestors. They have no right to cover her face as well as they would not let her to speak for herself. They were doing on their behavioral stage which is unacceptable.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
One comment was deleted due to its unwarranted implications. So I need to add this to the list… no accusatory implications are permitted. If you have proof, show it. To the commenter, shame on you for trying to derail this productive and thoughtful discourse. Unfortunately, coming from you, I am not surprised. Though your previous actions, it’s obvious you do not have the best interest of the Deaf Community in heart.
Please keep in mind: If someone makes an accusation or negative implication without proof, this person is also hurting the Deaf Community.
November 15th, 2008 at 1:31 am
MZ, it was not an accusation. There were letters sent to the schools in an attempt to ruin several individuals’ careers simply because they stood up for what they believed in. Several already confirmed that they were acknowledged by their superiors that they got letters from certain individuals.
Egbert did not accuse anyone else in particular but he pointed out the hypocrisy — if it is not OK for them to slander people of these terms but OK for others to smear their careers by letter-writing campaign?
That’s the big picture here, MZ.
R-
November 15th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Ridor, thank you for your explanation. You and I have different interpretations. I see the part from the deleted comment a strong implication to the identities of the people who are “guilty”.
That is a broad generalization and I cannot justify publishing the whole comment in good faith as there is no proof of the identities of those who did send these letters. I don’t even know any who did. I did contact an accused person, who denied doing anything beyond talking about doing it. Unless there is concrete proof for us to see, these specific individuals are still innocent.
I want to make it known to everybody I was both shocked and appalled when I heard that development. These practices must be condemned. This wasn’t constructive to the empowerment of Deaf Community and its tolerance for diversity of ideas and beliefs.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:51 am
I want to take a moment to say that like Mishka, I was shocked to see at the turn of the situation (alleged writing letters to the Dept. of Education.) Mostly I voiced AND still voice my opinions, nothing more.
November 15th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
A Deafhood analysis of the situation tells us much if we ask questions:
Q. Why do Deaf americans so casually use psychologically loaded insults?
A. I have some theories as to the answer. First, we do have a term in the community called “deaf plus.” Deaf people are continually, and still, grouped with disabled and mentally ill students in mainstreamed programs. The feeling may have arised as a protective measure to avoid absolute association because Deaf children want to assert that they are indeed mentally able.
This is combined with the SEPARATION of “hard of hearing” people in America from “deaf” people. Although there is no real meaning to the term – dictionaries define hard of hearing as deaf, and in English the phrases are often used interchangeably. However, in mainstreamed and oral programs across America, at least until the 1980s unilaterally, students who were considered hard of hearing, were given more respect and considered more intelligent than students who were deaf. This feeling was so prevalent that people like me, who were totally deaf and just good at english, were labelled hard of hearing – not because I fit any such definition of hearing loss being profoundly deaf, but because the hearing people couldn’t accept that a deaf man could be good at english – that was a skill for the hard of hearing.
So you have this stratum in the Deaf community, hard of hearing to deaf to deaf plus, and even culturally Deaf people from Deaf families sometimes unconsciously have this range in their heads. It’s meaningless and just reflects hearing people’s attitudes based on their assessment of English skill.
So Deaf people, like any other group, take on the attitudes of their oppressor. In the case of the Fernandes/UFG protest, I feel those who were making the comments discussed in this blog, were generally people who wanted to “please” the hearing community. As such they were trying to distinguish themselves from another group. By labelling them psychologically deficient, they were subconsciously invoking that artificial “range” of quality in people’s minds. They were making people remember those distinctions between hard of hearing and deaf and deaf plus, and trying to make that a part of the discussion to invalidate complaints or concerns about Fernandes’ administrative style.
Fernandes herself took advantage of this type of subconscious attack, which is, first and foremost, why she was an inappropriate choice for leadership of the university.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
This kind of behavior happens in the mainstream too. “So and so” has problem employee so the person decides to discredit someone by saying that the person has mental issues or to defame someone. We see that happening a lot, even more so online. But, for deaf community to work together, I think this just makes it even harder. I agree, labeling someone in that regard belongs only to those who have earned their right to diagnose someone, not any of us. I have so much knowledge of psychology and even so, I’m not qualified to diagnose anyone. Even a psychologist or a psychiatrist would be violating their code to be revealing such online or to the public!
Yet, in the media, we see that happening a lot. So called experts chime in and assumes a diagnosis of some individual based on comments made by neighbors, friends, etc. Where does it end?
As for Ridor’s comment above, If I remember correctly one of the individual made a vlog last summer clarifying that NO ONE has contacted her employer, although it was ‘threatened’ as a way to control her or perhaps to ‘shut her up’. I’d like to think that we all agree that was a LOW and hope no one uses that to try to gain power or control of anyone.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Psychiatric labels can hurt everyone’s reputation. It is NOT fair to the others who go through with their own illness(es). It is an illness that it will not go away. It can be treated with medicines, therapy and/or even use the coping skills. Name callings is unacceptable. It is the same thing as health issues that many people have. Stigma must be destroyed.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
This post was written in defense of both HuggyAngels (DVTV) and Aidan (DeafRead) who were very recently labeled with inappropriate psychiatric terms by commenters
HuggyAngels thanked me and did an ASL version for the DVTV viewers. So far all the viewers approved the main concept: avoid insulting people and labeling them
Here is the link to HuggysAngels’ vlog: http://www.deafvideo.tv/video/watch/29499/
November 15th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Wow…
Sheesh….labeling and diagnose anybody with mental illness issue, etc is really extreme dangerous and possible libel and perhaps slander.
In face, I’ve done that vlog to explain it’s wrong to label anybody even though we may not like a certain person. At the end, some of us ended up arguing through the comments under both my v/blog and DVTV. One person had some balls for calling me “schizo” as well. In fact, it is the SAME person who kept labeling a certain person over and over in DVTV. He needs to understand that could be dangerous. But he doesn’t seem to because he claimed that he had done some volunteer work in the mental hospital. WTF??? It’s a huge difference between a volunteer and licensed doctor, for chrissake. It doesn’t qualify anybody who had worked or seen or met any mental people. It doesn’t give you a license to give out those so called diagnosis.
They could have very well slapped with possible lawsuits for libel and defamation of character since they’re not qualified to assess anybody without a license of such. They need to be careful to what they say or make any determination.
Speaking of that incident, Ridor, I agree that is so wrong of anybody who threatened to call the other person’s workplace just because the other person support some such cause. However in one of her v/blog, she stated that it was implied with somewhat veiled threats that did NOT go through to her place of employment. Still, it’s not a good idea to throw some kind of veiled threats or/and implications to abuse their priviledge or scare anybody into submissive. It’s so wrong on many level. Remember, some doesn’t have any good common sense.
Misha
November 16th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Wow, okay…you were defending Aidan but now you’re getting this crap?!? WTF with that?!? You don’t deserve that! He sure wastes his time and energy to chase you and others all the way to the end of earth and whatnot. If he wants to focus on his “mission”, he needs to lay off those pipe and work on his “mission”, not on you and others as well.
Misha
November 16th, 2008 at 1:15 am
I know, Misha. I was defending two people, including one a strong supporter of this organization. Nobody deserves to be treated this way.
Now, as you can see, I was trying to encourage the Deaf Community to use healthier dialogues by exploring how destructive labels hurt the community in the long run. Apparently someone didn’t like it.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Hmmm… it would be easier if any reader who feels one’s being targeted or does not fully understand any blogs could privately contact the blogger for clarification, to reduce any chance of twisting words out of context, leading to more misassumptions and to defamation, etc.
I am sorry to see it happening now. To me it is clearly a big misunderstanding.
November 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am
You know, I can’t but laugh at this. Nobody could make this shit up, because nobody would believe it! *shakes her head with a smirk*
November 16th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
If this person is KNOWN to have some kind of mental problem (actual, not perceived), is it wise to say nothing?
November 17th, 2008 at 11:51 am
about some comments talking about how JFK side attacking the protestors. from what i remember it was BOTH sides who played this terrible game.
what about burning effigy, hateful posters toward JFK, blogs/comments attacking JFK, and others. So issue was on both sides, supporters and protesters.
REmember this “It takes 2 to tango” ? Both sides need to work together to be able to move on.
i.identify.me
November 17th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Bouyea, I was talking about the use of mental diagnoses as a weapon to attack, oppress, and silence a healthy, outspoken person.
However, if this person is known to be mentally ill and someone disclose this person’s mental diagnoses in the public, the person shouldn’t be violating the person’s medical confidentiality. The person shouldn’t also be trying to stigmatize someone who may be mentally ill. The public has no business knowing the medical history of others.
November 17th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
i.identify me,
Honestly I don’t recall anyone labeling JFK or IKJ with a diagnosis of mental illness. This is what I am talking about.
However, I did hear from both sides how exceptionally ugly this protest was. I was sorry to hear that some neutral parties and supporters weren’t respected, either. I did see a pro JKF blogger verbally attacked and I encouraged that person to continue blogging as he had the right to express his opinions, whether we agreed with him or not. I also have friends who were pro JKF, and we didn’t bash each other, either.
November 17th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I.Identify me, one more thing:
I agree with you that both sides need to work together and hear each other out, with mutual respect. I am hopeful that Gallaudet will heal from this protest eventually.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Deaf Pundit, I have already made copies of this libelous post. I am keeping the libel/slander option open as I have more and more evidence.
It’s sad how some people try to oppress each other here in the Deaf Community by cyberbullying, ostracization, slander, and libel. Unfortunately these people fail to see how unhealthy the tactics they learned from their hearing oppressors are.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
This is an excellent lesson for people to keep in mind: Hearsay by Aidan Mack.
http://www.deafvideo.tv/video/watch/29684/
Don’t blindly believe what people say. Get verification straight from the person.