The second argument is that extreme prejudice causes subjective distress and/or restriction of functioning in the prejudiced, at least when they are faced with those they are prejudiced against. I'm sure this sometimes occurs. But I'm also sure that some of my friends would experience severe subjective distress if forced to spend much time with the college Republicans. And many of us cause difficulties for ourselves and others in our extended families when we forcefully express our political and social opinions at family gatherings. If liberal or radical politics is not to be considered a psychopathology on this basis, then neither should prejudice, however repugnant we may find it to be.
The Washington Post article begins with some extreme cases, including delusions and obsessions about the feared or hated group:
Interestingly, in this case the DSM already contains many diagnoses that one might contemplate applying, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, paranoia, or paranoid personality disorder. I've never known my fellow mental health professionals having too much trouble coming up with a diagnosis when they believe someone has a "fixed delusion." So even if one is playing the diagnostic game, there is no need for new categories or new labels to encompass these extreme cases.
What, then, would be gained by adding extreme prejudice to the list of diagnoses? Presumably, it would be viewed as a political victory by those discriminated against, allowing those doing the discriminating to be labeled as "sick." In the best case, such a label could aid a few victims. It would be a statement by the mental health professions that these behaviors are undesirable and should be changed, perhaps even forcefully if necessary.
Costs of Pathologizing
But, do we want to encourage the expanded use of the diagnostic system to express our moral judgments? This game of labeling political and social attitudes with medical labels is a two-edged sword. Those victimized by prejudice, such as gays or blacks and women who refuse to accept their socially assigned roles, have themselves been labeled with any number of diagnoses. Steps that legitimate assigning medical diagnoses to those with certain social and political attitudes can easily be turned upon other groups when the climate changes. Those who have suffered their share at the hands of mental health professionals covertly pursuing political and social goals had best beware.
Another danger is that creating a diagnosis of extreme prejudice will turn attention to the psychological aspects of bigotry, potentially at the expense of social aspects. This not to deny that understanding the psychological aspects of prejudice isn't helpful. It most definitely is. But bigotry and prejudice entwine the personal and the political, the psychological and the social. Attempts to view these problems through a dualistic either/or lens are not productive. Pathologizing prejudice will obscure these complex relationships, allowing therapy to become another detour from changing the social conditions that utilize the penchant for prejudice in many or all of us in order to protect social inequality. Further, pathologizing prejudice, by distinguishing the sick from the unsick, may allow those of us not so diagnosed to feel comfortable, perhaps even smug, with the biases and bigotries that haunt us all.
Modern medicine and related fields are creating new diagnoses at a rapid rate, thus distinguishing more and more of us and our physical and mental states from those of the "normal." Rather than fostering the view that we humans resemble each other more than we differ, and that a just society will be built on a recognition of our commonalities, on e'galite' and fraternite' combined with liberte', pathologizing prejudice will create a new group of ill from whom we can feel distinct, even superior.
At a more concrete level, the creation of diagnostic categories for prejudice or racism may have perverse and unintended consequences. For example, under the Americans for Disabilities Act, those with mental illnesses are afforded certain protections and accommodations. Will racists and homophobes labeled as ill find themselves a protected group, whose behavior must be tolerated as it isn't their fault, but simply the result of their illness?
Adding this new diagnosis may make antiracists and the victims of racism and bigotry feel vindicated. But the costs in conceptual clarity and in muddying the strategies for change are too great. Progressives should not support this new trend.
The Washington Post article begins with some extreme cases, including delusions and obsessions about the feared or hated group:
"The 48-year-old man turned down a job because he feared that a co-worker would be gay. He was upset that gay culture was becoming mainstream and blamed most of his personal, professional and emotional problems on the gay and lesbian movement.
"These fixations preoccupied him every day. Articles in magazines about gays made him agitated. He confessed that his fears had left him socially isolated and unemployed for years: A recovering alcoholic, the man even avoided 12-step meetings out of fear he might encounter a gay person.
"'He had a fixed delusion about the world,' said Sondra E. Solomon, a psychologist at the University of Vermont who treated the man for two years. 'He felt under attack, he felt threatened.'"
Interestingly, in this case the DSM already contains many diagnoses that one might contemplate applying, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, paranoia, or paranoid personality disorder. I've never known my fellow mental health professionals having too much trouble coming up with a diagnosis when they believe someone has a "fixed delusion." So even if one is playing the diagnostic game, there is no need for new categories or new labels to encompass these extreme cases.
What, then, would be gained by adding extreme prejudice to the list of diagnoses? Presumably, it would be viewed as a political victory by those discriminated against, allowing those doing the discriminating to be labeled as "sick." In the best case, such a label could aid a few victims. It would be a statement by the mental health professions that these behaviors are undesirable and should be changed, perhaps even forcefully if necessary.
Costs of Pathologizing
Another danger is that creating a diagnosis of extreme prejudice will turn attention to the psychological aspects of bigotry, potentially at the expense of social aspects. This not to deny that understanding the psychological aspects of prejudice isn't helpful. It most definitely is. But bigotry and prejudice entwine the personal and the political, the psychological and the social. Attempts to view these problems through a dualistic either/or lens are not productive. Pathologizing prejudice will obscure these complex relationships, allowing therapy to become another detour from changing the social conditions that utilize the penchant for prejudice in many or all of us in order to protect social inequality. Further, pathologizing prejudice, by distinguishing the sick from the unsick, may allow those of us not so diagnosed to feel comfortable, perhaps even smug, with the biases and bigotries that haunt us all.
Modern medicine and related fields are creating new diagnoses at a rapid rate, thus distinguishing more and more of us and our physical and mental states from those of the "normal." Rather than fostering the view that we humans resemble each other more than we differ, and that a just society will be built on a recognition of our commonalities, on e'galite' and fraternite' combined with liberte', pathologizing prejudice will create a new group of ill from whom we can feel distinct, even superior.
At a more concrete level, the creation of diagnostic categories for prejudice or racism may have perverse and unintended consequences. For example, under the Americans for Disabilities Act, those with mental illnesses are afforded certain protections and accommodations. Will racists and homophobes labeled as ill find themselves a protected group, whose behavior must be tolerated as it isn't their fault, but simply the result of their illness?
Adding this new diagnosis may make antiracists and the victims of racism and bigotry feel vindicated. But the costs in conceptual clarity and in muddying the strategies for change are too great. Progressives should not support this new trend.
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