this one's for aubs

[ochodias]

 dear LJ,

it's been a long time.

these days i'm struggling to understand how my struggle to understand why psychiatry is so painful for me can tell me something about who i am. if that makes sense. it's weird, i'm super interested, but it's so insanely painful. and it's not painful because it's sadder than any other illness. shit! other illnesses

Comments

[leprincemort]

oh, katy! (can i still call you that?) i have a file somewhere of activists and leftists writing on psychiatry and mental illness. i don't know if it'll help, but i'll try to dig it up. maybe it's painful because mental illness can churn up scary political and philosophical issues about personal responsibility, personality, and autonomy. in any case, it's easy to justify being driven up the wall by someone whose personality you dislike, but if they have a personality disorder . . . i think you should only judge yourself on your actual actions, and not on the basis of your feelings or inner reactions. you're only a bad person if you intentionally or negligently harm others. i doubt you do either.
anyway, i think it's so cool that you're actually becoming a doctor. i'm sure if you find your way back to montreal when you're done whatever you have to do to pay off your debt, you'll find the hold button still flashing and a pile of friends still hanging out on the other line. in the meantime, please play guitar and find time to go see live music.

[dr_fagnew]

Yeah, I'd stay on the other line forever for you katiebaby.

next wednesday?

[ochodias]

aw! everything you said is so thoughtful!

it's so true about mental illness relating so closely to autonomy and personal and even societal responsibility. when the majority of the 'psych ward' is there on a court order, it starts to make you wonder whether you're part of a hideous machine taking away people's rights...

i'd love to read your lefty mental illness files. it's funny... every time i get perplexed about something in medicine, i spend a few months thinking i have to figure it out on my own, before one of my non-medical friends points out to me that they've been working on this very thing for years.

PS is there a cottage trip in the works again for this year?

xoxo