Bad, Wrong, & Psychotic (was Re: On the Use of Clinical Terms in Social Theory)

JKSCHW at aol.com JKSCHW at aol.com
Mon Feb 7 15:13:19 PST 2000



> As for Justin, I would simply say to him, "what would Rawls (or Kant for

that matter) say?" Is it ethical to use the word "psychotic" as an

epithet, based upon Justin's own moral philosophy?

I'm not a Rawlsian, although (since you asked) Rawls' theory would say nothing about it, since name-calling isn't part of the fundamental structure of society that is the subject of a theory of justice.

Kant, as you know, would say that you shouldn't do it if the ultimate maxim on which you act could not be willed as a universal law for all mankind.

I suppose part of your point is that you think it couldn't be here, because you think it as insulting as a racial epithet. If I agreed that it was, I would concur with you that we shouldn't say it. Though not, perhaps for that reason.


> That the term doesn't

in fact apply to the object of attack doesn't serve as a moral excuse for

using it as an epithet.

Apparently we stand re-corrected again, since "psychotic" in the adjective form is used by the clinicians. I think that is neother here nor there. As I pointed out, people use medical and legal terms all the time without the use being strict and prtecise. Kissinger (Henry not Clark) is a war criminal guilty of genocide--but he has not been convicted by any tribunal of any such act. It's a matter of using a vocabulary with certain connotations than with literal applications.

As to the use of to apply to somewhat like David Irving, the definitions in the clinician's manual referring to delusions and hallucinations and such seemed pretty apt there. I was explaining Irving to my ten year old daughter, reporting his views in a pretty neutral way. "Is he crazy?" she asked. I couldn't say, honestly, no, just evil--as one might say, perhaps that Kissinger (Henry, that is) is evil. Mere moral condemnation doesn't capture the crazy quality of some evil, its lack of rationality, it's not just being good means to bad ends, but wacko through and through. When that is the issue, words like "crazy" and "psycho" spring to mind.

Anyway, I am so un-PC I sometimes refer to adult femals as "girls." Course I also sometimes refer to adult males as "boys," but I know it's not equal equal. So shoot me.

--jks



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