Is Bias a Mental Illness??????

For those afraid of Big Government, NWO, Political Correctness gone too far, the Thought Police .... so it begins:

An article today on MSNBC is headlined Should bias be treated as a mental illness?

article

For all that would rush to proclaim that this is a great leap forward in the fight against prejudice, just stop and think about this for a few minutes before jumping to that conclusion: Exactly who is going to decide what constitutes bias? And do you want them deciding if your thoughts and actions apply?

Excerpt:
As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis. Is it ‘Ordinary prejudice’ or something more?
Advocates have circulated draft guidelines and have begun to conduct systematic studies. While the proposal is gaining traction, it is still in the early stages of being considered by the professionals who decide on new diagnoses.

If this does move forward, how long will it be before it starts being used against people when a boss, neighbor, wife, child, ... has something they don't like about you. Will they be able to claim you have a "bias" and be able to force you into mental therapy?

Scary ...



[edit on 12/10/2005 by centurion1211]

Well my friend, almost anything could be considered a mental ilness depending on how you look at it.

I had a rather tasteless remark, but seeing as how it would offend some folks, I'll leave it out, hehe

--Kit,

As a follow-on thought;

What would our government's position have to be against whole populations of countries that demonstrate "bias" against another country, race or religion? Would the U.S. have to cease trade and diplomatic relations with countries that demonstrate a bias?

A few examples come to mind ...

Originally posted by Kitsunegari
Well my friend, almost anything could be considered a mental ilness depending on how you look at it.
--Kit,

Exactly. It means that therefore a person's fate could be left up to a prosecutor, police and/or judge with some political or social agenda.

It's not the same as charging someone with the crime of, say, murder or theft. If this goes further, you could be charged with thinking biased thoughts. Not a good future for anyone.

[edit on 12/10/2005 by centurion1211]

Who determines if something is a mental illness?
The Shrinks?

Yeah; ok. Talk about walking examples of mental illness.

That which is considered to be unacceptable behavior is dictated by shifts in society. Psychiatry as related to the study of the mind is science to me; this other crap is just that - crap.

Good point centurion. Though, personally, I don't think this would ever really pose a problem.
For one, most people wouldn't think about things in this way, or look at them from this angle. And even if someone did, I don't think anything would come of it, because you will always have people who will disagree, and it just seems to me that any argument of this nature would just be dragged in circles, never amounting to anything of signifigance.

And TC,

--Kit.

This seems like a smokescreen to make being non-PC a mental issue that needs to be treated.

The extreme examples given here seem to be a type of phobia -- just instead of being scared to death of spiders these few people are scared of gays or jews etc. I'm sure these debilitating cases are quite rare.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
This seems like a smokescreen to make being non-PC a mental issue that needs to be treated.

The extreme examples given here seem to be a type of phobia -- just instead of being scared to death of spiders these few people are scared of gays or jews etc. I'm sure these debilitating cases are quite rare.

True, but I'm also looking at this as a potential "slippery slope" issue.

Once you start down that slope, there's no turning back and no telling how far it will go.

Bias is not a mental illness, it is a brain function. Its purpose is to protect the entity by making it less open to different groups.

Bias is developed due to the way the brain works. Since there is no fundamental way to know the truth, the brain uses pattern matching to separate good and bad experiences. The result of pattern matching may produce satisfactory results for the situation at hand, but it may be wrong in the long term.

BIAS ... info from Abnormal Psychology by Ronald Comer

Basically, the book says that bias is one factor that is
involved with racial and sexual prejudice and phobias.
The problems they pose may contribute to abonormal
patterns of tension, unhappiness, low self esteem,
depression (non clinical) and escape.

It's dysfunctional according to abnormal psychology.
A study by Prochaska and Norcross, 2003, was cited.

I don't have a copy of the DSM-IV.
(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Menal Disorders).
Here is some online -
allpsych.com...

My own opinion .. sometimes bias is good. If bias is
based on education and experience then SOME bias'
can be evolutionary survival mechanisms.

As far as if bias should be treated as a mental disorder....
That's frign' stupid. The entire planet is bias in one way
or another towards different things and/or people.
Re-educate the entire planet through mind bending
techniques? Sounds NWO to me!


[edit on 12/10/2005 by FlyersFan]

[edit on 12/10/2005 by FlyersFan]

Originally posted by masterp
Bias is not a mental illness, it is a brain function. Its purpose is to protect the entity by making it less open to different groups.

Bias is developed due to the way the brain works. Since there is no fundamental way to know the truth, the brain uses pattern matching to separate good and bad experiences. The result of pattern matching may produce satisfactory results for the situation at hand, but it may be wrong in the long term.

I tend to agree with you. A million years of evolution in a world where running into people you don't know can get you killed, doesn't just disappear overnight. Plus the world still seems pretty much like that now.

The DSM 5 isn't due out until 2010. DSM 4, currently the used diagnosis guide of mental disorders is nothing more than a tool to make Pharm giants and the medical community lots of money. I like to call the DSM4 (Doctors Scammin Money). Perhaps Tom Cruise is right and does know the history of psychiatry.

Im sure some of the new disorders will have names like, Bias Personality Disorder, Conspiracy Obsessive Cumpulsive Anxiety Disorder etc.
Too bad they won't come up with a Bush Supporter Disorder or False Pride Patriot Disorder, which should truly be classified as illnesses.

If I'm the only one here who remembers the gory days of Soviet Rule.

See, at first, they locked dissadents away for "counter-revolutionary tendancies." Things like making your own monopoly game on the underside of your kitchen table, for playing with your buddies when you got bored with the weekly poker game. Or the tailor Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about, who got life for punching his stick-pins into an old newspaper, which a client noticed put the pins the eye of a photograph of Stalin on page 6 . . .

That generated a lot of hate against the soviet govt, right up into the 1950's.

Then, the government realized that Capitalism was actually a Mental Illness. The worker's paradise would be saved, by building "sanitariums," and "treating" the enemies of the people for their improper thoughts.

This is how they avoided the censure of international protest groups like Amnesty International, et al. Respect for psychiatry as a profession meant that fewer intellectuals abroad would question an official diagnosis, even when the diagnosis was of basically of having entrepreneurial tendencies.

We won't even mention the hospitals filled with prostitutes, who had been diagnosed, who needed constant "therapy" to reform them.

So, whom will this be used against, In the USA?

Well, Scientologists hate Psychiatry, so that'd be a start.

How about alternative medicine types?

Republicans who refuse to reform healtchare???

Maybe the directors of HMO's, that won't fully fund counseling???

That should be enough to set your fevered little minds racing.


Have fun.

Well, i am not a Bush fan, i guess that makes me mentally ill. I should seek psychiatric help, i guess...

I dont even have a grip on my OCD yet...

What to do, what to do....

Originally posted by dgtempe
What to do, what to do....

We need to feed you some Valium, take you down to Washington and have you give Bush a big bear hug and a kiss on the cheek.

It's the only way you can be cured.

What I see manifesting in this thread is the dreaded "Broad Generalization Syndrome" and the only known treatment is the painful but effective deny ignorance treatment.

Yeh. Personally I think Tom Cruise has sme sort of mental illness, but thats just me.



dgtempe, we seem to be in the same boat

--Kit.

Originally posted by djohnsto77

Originally posted by dgtempe
What to do, what to do....

We need to feed you some Valium, take you down to Washington and have you give Bush a big bear hug and a kiss on the cheek.

It's the only way you can be cured.

Oh, not that! What if i like him in person and steal him away from Barbara? Then you would all be speaking to the FIRST LADY HOMEWRECKER! Would you respect me then?

And, they DO have a new drug for Bias...Its called Biasin. Conveniently packaged in packages of 1000. Get the second free.

[edit on 10-12-2005 by dgtempe]

Originally posted by dgtempe
Oh, not that! What if i like him in person and steal him away from Barbara? Then you would all be speaking to the FIRST LADY HOMEWRECKER! Would you respect me then?

I think you mean Laura, Barbara is his mom.

Oh darn, yes, i did mean Laura.

Arent they the same person?