[lbo-talk] in which I'm accused of repressing the reptilian brain

[wrobert at uci.edu]

>
>
> wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
>>
>> My comment is in reference to diagnosable mental illness, rather than
>> 'bad
>> ideas.'  The comment about the NASCAR debate was meant to indicate that
>> by
>> inference.  To be honest, I was referencing a comment from a friend
>> about
>> studies he read, but I'm pretty sure that he is referencing APA
>> standards
>> around mental illness, but I could ask if you're interested.
>
>
> APA standards are subject to sharp challenge even among psychiatrists
> and psychologists. There is a small handful of mental illnesses which
> seem reasonably defined and described, but even in respect to such there
> is enough confusion at the margins to undercut very precise estimates of
> distribution within this or that social or occupational category. And
> while the woods are full of conpsiracists who see all psychiatry as a
> plot by the pharmaceutical industry, _some_ designations certainly do
> represent a drug looking for an illness. At one time serious bipolar
> cases were often diagnosed as schizophrenia, and there is no reason to
> suppose that many current diagnoses will be similarly rejected in the
> future.

Yes, knowledge is socially constructed and constantly within contestation.
And?


> Where would one draw the line between Anxiety disorder and bad ideas or
> fucked-up conditions of life.

Institutional structures, which are always problematic and under
contestation.


> In any case, I was primarily cocnerned with the silliness of the flip
> judgment on "grad students" you quoted. Grad students do no constitute a
> coherent category, the different fields of grad studies vary more from
> each other than do grad students from undergrads or high-school grads.
>
> Carrol

      You can really push this to the point where there are no categories
of course.  As to the second statement, it's actually kind of
laughable.  While there are distinct differences in courses of
study.  There are common conditions around labor status,
professional goals, etc.  My experiences as a comp lit grad student
isn't the same as my father's 35 years ago in physics, but a lot of
it translates.  Similarly, the set of concerns that I have would be
fairly recognizable to most graduate students, whether they are in
another field or in another institution.  This is why the UC schools
are all organized.  If you were right, this wouldn't be possible.

      As a side note, you seem to have a remarkable inability to
successfully read a variety of genres of texts considering you're
involved in literary analysis.  I'm not sure what to make of that,
but its kinda fascinating.

                              robert wood