Vive la difference! Just thinking. And blathering.
A First-Rate Madness by Nassir Ghaemi. I haven't read this book, but it's been getting a some press and I've heard the author in a couple of interviews. I like the idea he started with, that mental illness (he focuses mainly on mainia and depression) is not exclusively negative and "normalcy" is not exclusively positive, and more specifically that in high-performing people like world leaders who also suffer from mental illness, their mental health is not irrelevant to their positive performance. I know there's been plenty of discussion in the past about mental illness and creativity, but the leadership angle is new enough, it seems, that it's getting attention.
This reminds me of a more general concept I've observed in a few places lately: that some cultures manage to deal with differences not by ostracizing the oddballs, but rather by incorporating those people into the society in ways that makes both the individuals and the society stronger. Neurological differences, mental health differences, sexual and gender identity differences, physical differences: we can fear and demonize* them, or we can embrace them. What got me thinking about this was Rupert Isaacson, who wrote a book and made a film, The Horse Boy, about a journey he took with his autistic son. Isaacson observes (theorizes, I'd say) that many of the medicine people in shamanistic societies may have been non-neurotypical: on what we would identify as the autism spectrum, or dealing with what we would call mental illnesses which cause them to perceive the world differently from most people. The shamans are respected and valuable to their communities. (ETA - It's quite accepted, at least among the autism community, that particularly many of the scientific achievements humans have made have been accomplished by people who were probably on the autism spectrum, who were given or were able to make an environment in which to fully use their ability to focus and think in different ways.)
Another thing I'm thinking of is Two Spirits, about Fred Martinez, a Navajo teenager who was the victim of a gay-hate motivated murder. The documentary talks about the concept some Native North American tribes had of "two spirits," part of a cultural system that recognizes more than two genders. The cultures celebrated the additional genders and had recognized roles for them to perform in society. Neat. (This map of gender-diverse cultures is pretty cool.)
* Demonizing, literally--mentally ill people were possessed by demons, or at least mental illness was considered a sin. (Depression = the deadly sin of sloth/acedia, and so forth.) I am pro-religious faith for folks who value it and use it for personal and/or societal good, but one of the things I struggle with most about religions is the way many of them have historically created frameworks for hate and exclusion based on things people cannot control. If that was all in the past I wouldn't worry about it, but it still plagues us today.
This entry was also posted at http://rustydog.dreamwidth.org/1054531.html. You may comment at either place.
This reminds me of a more general concept I've observed in a few places lately: that some cultures manage to deal with differences not by ostracizing the oddballs, but rather by incorporating those people into the society in ways that makes both the individuals and the society stronger. Neurological differences, mental health differences, sexual and gender identity differences, physical differences: we can fear and demonize* them, or we can embrace them. What got me thinking about this was Rupert Isaacson, who wrote a book and made a film, The Horse Boy, about a journey he took with his autistic son. Isaacson observes (theorizes, I'd say) that many of the medicine people in shamanistic societies may have been non-neurotypical: on what we would identify as the autism spectrum, or dealing with what we would call mental illnesses which cause them to perceive the world differently from most people. The shamans are respected and valuable to their communities. (ETA - It's quite accepted, at least among the autism community, that particularly many of the scientific achievements humans have made have been accomplished by people who were probably on the autism spectrum, who were given or were able to make an environment in which to fully use their ability to focus and think in different ways.)
Another thing I'm thinking of is Two Spirits, about Fred Martinez, a Navajo teenager who was the victim of a gay-hate motivated murder. The documentary talks about the concept some Native North American tribes had of "two spirits," part of a cultural system that recognizes more than two genders. The cultures celebrated the additional genders and had recognized roles for them to perform in society. Neat. (This map of gender-diverse cultures is pretty cool.)
* Demonizing, literally--mentally ill people were possessed by demons, or at least mental illness was considered a sin. (Depression = the deadly sin of sloth/acedia, and so forth.) I am pro-religious faith for folks who value it and use it for personal and/or societal good, but one of the things I struggle with most about religions is the way many of them have historically created frameworks for hate and exclusion based on things people cannot control. If that was all in the past I wouldn't worry about it, but it still plagues us today.
This entry was also posted at http://rustydog.dreamwidth.org/1054531.html. You may comment at either place.