VOT:If I am love-sick or get hurt emotionally or feel a strong need to do something, a compulsion, like cleaning my entire house. I'm not mentally ill, for the last time, it has nothing to do with mental illness.
AS:I did not say that it did. Day to day life is going to happen, of course. But if one has a compulsion (like cleaning ones house) over and over and over, and it gets in the way of you living your life (or allowing others to live theirs...such in the case of racists or extreme control freaks/tyrants) then I would say that counts as a mental illness. You want the term mental illness to be absolute. You want it to mean whatever it is you want it to mean. You are the one who does a great disservice to those who may not have a severe mental illness but have a mental illness none the less. Mental illness is mental illness. It is characterized by irrational behavior that harms oneself or others.
What I am proposing is that someday science may find a cure for certain if not all mental illnesses. What is so terrible about that? You sound like one of those jerks in the past who opposed pain relief during childbirth arguing that 'God intended women to suffer and who are we to go against God.' I am saying...if there was a method...perhaps fighting diseases though dna testing and repairing....or some other method...perhaps a hormone replacement...something that would ease or eliminate suffering...why on earth would you not take it? You would take pain medication for a headache...right? If you lost a leg, you would allow science to reattach it....right? Well then, why would you not allow science to make it so you could think more rationally? It seems absurd to me that you would not want such treatment available to those who suffer.
VOT:It's just what it means to live, sometimes things happens, sometimes you scratch your knee, you're not physically sick because you scratch your knee, and in the same way to have something
imperfect (as you seem to assume, please tell me if this is not so) about a mind is not a case of illness, it's just how things always are and likely always will be. Now to counter the pains we might feel in and from the mind is closer to ergonomics than it is to neuropsychiatrics.
AS:What I am proposing is not about imperfection. I am not that shallow. Quirks are adorable...I love overweight people...I dig different color skin...please...let's get past that already. I am not hung up on the aesthetic and believe the aesthetic is merely a form of entertainment. It is not the be all and end all of life.
What I am suggesting is that we just imagine (no harm in that is there?) a world where we can not only ease physical suffering but mental as well. I have been thinking about things like this all my life. Just asking questions that seem overwhelmingly complex (how to achieve world peace, for example) and then contemplating possible solutions in the present and/or future that would solve such problems. Part of my imagining is to ponder what makes life unpeaceful...and I had come to the conclusion alot of suffering is caused by man against man...and why? And I thought...part of the reason is because we want to punish...but why? Why do we want to punish when we would not want to be punished. It all seemed so irrational to me. Not to say some forms of punishment might be necessary...only to say I can imagine a world where punishment would never be needed again. It just seemed to me we need to get at the root problem of all punishment...be it deserved or undeserved (I happen to think undeserved punishment is more common...and thus repeats in forms of revenge causing a never ending cycle), we would need to fix not only the criminal thought...but also the punishment thought. Because I wholeheartedly believe that even if we fixed criminal behavior human nature still wants to punish. Irrational thoughts in our heads....punish for every least little thing even punishment for things that are beyond our control...like the color of our skin.
Anyway, I like to day dream...what is wrong with that....so when I say I think being irrational is a form a mental illness...I hope you can see my line of thought now. And I hope you would not punish me for simply thinking in a fictional way for the sheer enjoyment of it. I have come to the conclusion that there are varying forms of mental illness in the world and most if not all have one form or another...and it is why our world is in turmoil. And if there is ever a cure...or if you want to call it "world peace" then someone has to first dream of a way it could be possible without losing the essence of who we are.
For arguments sake I am refusing to believe that the true nature of man is evil and instead arguing that the true nature of man is social and good but that it is an impossibility to be the true essence of what we are (socially caring people) at the current time because of our disease. It is no different from the guy who created star trek....he too had to look into the future and find possible solutions to problems. Dare to dream...eh?
I would never touch a cure you had found for any disease what so ever, because you don't seem to give a damn about your patients and their opinions on the matter, including whether they actually are mentally ill or not.
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Not true...it's just that you have probably never met someone who cares not only about the immediate problem but also about the root cause so that relief can come to the many and not only the few. And trust me...I would not be the one to find a cure...only that I could probably diagnose the problem better than most.