Oh, Robin Hobb...

[theotherbaldwin]

Today, while I have 3 articles to work on and write, and a migrane headache from hell, user raanve done a fine job of deconstructing why Hobb missed the clue train, so I can spend my energy elsewhere. Because seriously... saying that manic depression and artistic temperament are the same thing?

Comments

[erf_]

LiveJournal (and its refugee community on Dreamwidth) is, for all intents and purposes, an exceedingly poor forum to rebut Hobb's point. Eloquent, anecdotal, emotionally charged rephrasings of "WTF I NEED MEDICATION TO SURVIVE YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND DEPRESSION AT ALL" just make us sound like a bunch of histrionic, ignorant, self-obsessed assholes and don't answer Hobb's actual criticism of anti-depressive medication. Hobb is, in fact, taking a position held by many psychologists before the mid-'90s that ADHD, like hysteria and drapetomania before it, is not an actual psychological disorder and prescribing medication for it is inappropriate. (There was a prominent psychologist a while back who went as far as to claim that all mental disorders are mere social cosntructions; this point has long since fallen out of favor in academia, but his name and theories still pop up now and again.) These positions have eroded significantly over the past fifteen years, but anyone who hasn't been exposed to recent studies involving MRIs of depression

[theotherbaldwin]

you raise a few excellent points, though calling a few dozen people writing passionately about something a "mob" seems like a bit of a stretch since the whole purpose of a link round up is to round up links.

And "lynch mob"? Seriously? Seriously? I mean Jesus, dude, that's the rhetorical equivalent of going after a mosquito with a BFG.

Anyhow, "artistic temperament" as applied in Hobb's article I have seen used all too often to kind of paper over real difficulties someone might face without making an effort to figure out how to help someone be finctional in day to day living.

he is ignorant in believing that just because some kids are misdiagnosed or misuse their prescriptions all young ADHD sufferers are merely victims of "artistic temperament."

Of course, both Hobb and those rebutting her article both at times seem to fall into either side of the universalism coin.

I mean, intellectually, we KNOW everyone or that situations differ from place to place and person to person due to all sorts of circumstances. generalizing while useful

[erf_]

The "mob" comparison was uncalled for, though not hyperbole. I've explained it in a private message to you, and bear in mind that I misidentified the context in which this conversation is happening. I apologize, though. It was in poor taste

[erf_]

On the subject of marginalizing, othering, and dismissing out of hand, a friend of mine, who is a political science PhD student at UPenn, recently wrote an entry complaining about philosophy students in a course he was TAing who wrote their papers on Hobbes in the form of "Hobbes is bullshit, and here's why: rebuttal A to one of his points, rebuttal B to another, rebuttal C." My friend was appalled by how common this approach was. When you're reading about viewpoints as offensive to modern sensibilities as Hobbes's, it's intellectually bankrupt to just say "but Hobbes was wrong because of X," because the moment he offends you you are already reading the text in terms of how to take him down. The truth is, an extraordinary amount of thought, research, and insight went into Hobbes's philosophical systems, and truly understanding them involves the difficult task of seeing how he came to his conclusions and why he deduced that they were, out of the set of all possible conclusions, the correct ones. A proper rebuttal to Hobbes all but

[theotherbaldwin]

I totally agree re: attitudes not people and why a boycott might not be effective. I could see if she were writing offensive fiction but not so sure you this would be aiming energy in the right direction unless she was, like writng a non-fiction book all about how as she says "(Artistic temperment is sometimes spelled ‘t e n d e n c y t o m a n i c d e p r e s s i o n.’)"

[theotherbaldwin]

Also:
http://ephemere.dreamwidth.org/16818.html
and
http://bossymarmalade.livejournal.com/519691.html

and intersting sides of the coin too