[lbo-talk] let's argue about the cause of mental illness

[Carrol Cox]

shag carpet bomb wrote:
> 
> At 11:53 AM 8/28/2009, Carrol Cox wrote:
> >But while we don't know whether or not cholesterol can be loweed by
> >proper diet, we do know that cholesterol exists.
> 
> you are ignorant. but thanks for the gumball, too, Mickey.

Of course I'm ignorant about the specifics you discussed re cholesterol,
and when I posted I knew that I wasm't labelling that debate correctly.
But I thought my wording was reasonable shorthand for the more complex
debate, which did not conccrn me. It remains true that debates about
"mental illness" are debates abnout a mere generality, not a precisely
labelled condition.

If cholesterol had nothing whatever to do with anything, it would remain
true that in discussing it the "it" would have a referent. "Mental
illness" does not.

And if I too used "mental illness" as an abstraction rather than a
generality in the past, then I was either wrong or sloppy. So what.

Carrol