Why Anti-Authoritarians Are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill (2012)
Anti-authoritarian individuals are often misdiagnosed with mental illnesses like ADHD and ODD, as mental health professionals may misinterpret their resistance to authority, reinforcing conformity and medicalizing dissent.
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Anti-authoritarian individuals often face psychiatric diagnoses such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) due to their resistance to authority. Psychologist Bruce Levine argues that many mental health professionals, who are typically compliant with authority, misinterpret the behaviors of anti-authoritarians as symptoms of mental illness. This misdiagnosis can lead to the pathologization of natural dissent against illegitimate authority figures. Levine highlights that the educational and professional paths of psychologists and psychiatrists often reinforce conformity, making them less likely to understand or accept anti-authoritarian perspectives. He cites historical figures like Albert Einstein and Saul Alinsky, who would likely have been diagnosed with disruptive disorders under contemporary standards, as examples of how anti-authoritarian traits can be misconstrued as mental illness. Levine suggests that societal pressures to conform contribute to the increasing medicalization of behaviors that are, in fact, rational responses to oppressive systems. He emphasizes that many individuals labeled with psychiatric disorders are not inherently noncompliant but are instead resisting what they perceive as illegitimate authority. This dynamic not only exacerbates their mental health struggles but also serves to uphold the status quo by framing dissent as a medical issue rather than a political one.
- Anti-authoritarian behaviors are often misdiagnosed as mental illnesses like ADHD and ODD.
- Mental health professionals may lack understanding of anti-authoritarian perspectives due to their own compliance with authority.
- Historical figures exemplify how anti-authoritarian traits can be misinterpreted as mental health issues.
- Societal pressures contribute to the medicalization of dissenting behaviors.
- Resistance to illegitimate authority is often labeled as noncompliance, complicating treatment for those affected.
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10 commentsThis idea makes too much sense to not be true.
In the 20th century, wives could be put in insane asylums, and being transgender was officially deemed a mental disorder. Knowledge of autism was nearly nonexistent, and treatments for ADHD were limited.
As for the assertion that pathologized people don't need treatment, I would say that is reckless and greatly simplifies the issue.
Rebelling against all of the authorities is pathological. All authorities aren't illegitimate.
It may be that personality and attention disorders are over-diagnosed because we select those away when creating psychologists / psychiatrists, but it does not mean that the attention and behavior disorders are somehow good, either.
This really vexes me:
> The very characteristics of Einstein that upset authorities so much were exactly the ones that allowed him to excel.
Really? Which exactly?
You can certainly get a good job and become successful in today's society while harboring a deep-set suspicion of everyone who is in authority. But I do think that it's just harder to succeed in a workplace if you are constantly bucking instructions and only bucking them, based only on principle. If this drive motivates you to learn more and discover why things are the way they are, and come up with better things, you're not necessarily exhibiting those behavioral disorders at all! But the implication all over this article that anti-authoritarianism is by definition a good thing is suspect. (except, I guess, to those who self-identify as anti-authoritarians, usually politically)
Follow the money. Where the money flows, you will find the source of your authoritarianism. And if it flows over many points, each and every one of those points will have a modicum of authoritarianism designed to protect that flow ..
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