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Old January 30th, 2009 #40
Larry Heinberg
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 615
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AsphaltSoldier88 View Post
One thing that needs to be clarified: fake mental disorders such as ADHD take NORMAL behaviour of a child and classify it as a disorder.

I am not claiming there are no such thing as legitimate mental disorders. But in order for us to classify something as a mental disorder, it must be characterized by ABNORMAL behaviour. Homosexuality is a good example. A fixation on feces would be another. But even in these cases, a solution is not likely to be found in drugging the brain with a certain chemical.

But a child not paying attention is class is an issue of DICIPLINE, not a mental disorder.
No haha. Abnormality isn't sufficient for pathology.

Diagnoses should be useful above all. You don't call something a disease unless it is harmful. (By the way, this is basically the reason why the "abnormality" argument against homosexuality is a poor one).

As for these disorders, well, I suspect there is something to them, but also that they are over-diagnosed. It's unfortunate that naming something makes it more real. You'd think people could be nice to each other whether they had a name for their foibles or not.

Also it's not really an issue of discipline. Parenting perhaps, but not "discipline". Authoritarian parenting generally yields what most would agree are worse outcomes in terms of behaviour and moral reasoning.