Marta Russell wrote:
>
> >
> >[clip]
> I'm going to make my objects to the use of "sane" and "insane" which
> seems to be such a common leftie language trap that already I have
> done this on three lists.
> [clip]
Marta's post ought to be decisive on the matter of this language, but let me add a couple of points. Those who are _actually_ mentally ill are very seldom dangerous. Moreover, "psychotic" as a noun is extremely misleading: people who suffer from various mental illnesses _may_ have psychotic _symptoms_, but they are inaccurately and misleadingly called "psychotics." The greatest "deficiency" of the vast majority of those suffering from schizophrenia is a deficiency of money. Many sufferers could handle their illness if they were not nearly penniless, disability pay and other income supplements being criminally low. This is true of all the sufferers from schizophrenia or schizoid affective disorder I am presently acquained with. Their "voices," incidentally, most often merely repeat to them over and over againt that they are worthless. Meanwhile the agency supposedly providing them their meds refuses to pay for them if they do not apply on the correct day. (I'm pissed off just now because I just forked over $80 for an acquaintance in that fix, supposedly as a loan but I'll never get it back.)
The use of medical (or pseudo-medical) terms Marta objects to is one of the sources of the stigma which causes many mental patients more misery than their illness.
Carrol