Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Uses Schizophrenia As A Slur, Gets It Wrong

[KamaAina]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2015/07/03/presidential-candidate-mike-huckabee-uses-schizophrenia-as-a-slur-gets-it-wrong/

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made a common error recently in his attempts to mock what he sees as dissonance in the decisions Chief Justice John Roberts has made in two high-profile Supreme Court cases. In commenting on a Des Moines radio show about Roberts’ dissension from the decision regarding same-sex marriage and his decision in favor of the Affordable Care Act, Huckabee said that Roberts
apparently needs medication for schizophrenia.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) didn’t take too kindly to the attempt to use schizophrenia as a slur or to the mischaracterization of schizophrenia as involving a split personality, noting in a news release that
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly, manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others. It affects about 1% of Americans. The average age of onset tends to be in the late teens to early 20s for men and the late 20s to early 30s for women. It does not mean that a person has a “split” or multiple personalities.

In fact, the disorder associated with multiple personalities has a name, dissociative identity disorder. While the two can have overlap of some symptoms, including auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions are the primary symptom that characterizes schizophrenia whereas two or more distinct personalities constitute the main feature of dissociative identity disorder.

The latter remains a controversial diagnosis and is thought to trace to extreme and often repeated traumatic experiences that lead the person with the condition to wall off the recollections of those experiences in a separate personality or personalities. It might be more common in girls and women than in boys and men.

[tymorial]

1. The use of mental illness for purposes of insult is all too common.

It is as common (as the article points out) the frequent confusion between schizophrenia and dis-associative identity disorder. On a side note:

While I am all for calling out republicans when they misbehave, lie, obfuscate (etc etc), I feel it is important to point out that the use of mental illness for insult is not just a problem on the right. If one does a simple search "republicans are schizophrenic" you will find numerous linked articles and comments on this very site. The first hit I found linked to an article where NY Democrats called republicans schizophrenic over campaign finance reform. I will not link that page here because my response here is designed to point out our general hypocrisy on this issue rather than shaming any one individual.

I recognize this problem as a cultural and societal issue. It mirrors the use of "retarded" as an insult. Thankfully the latter is becoming less and less acceptable. In time using mental illness for comedic or insulting effect will also follow suit.

I do thank you for posting this article though. It gave me the opportunity to express my feelings. I'm very sensitive to this subject. Mental illness has affected me and my family greatly. This comment isn't the place to discuss all of what that entails but I will say this.

While I recognize that we have a long way to go in regards to the care and concern we extend to those who suffer from mental illness, I am grateful that mental illness is becoming less and less stigmatized. I hope and pray that soon the days will be gone where someone is forced to become a ward of the state and live out their lives in psychiatric facilities; abandoned by their family and forced to die alone all due to schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. This happened to my great aunt and I didn't even know she existed until it was too late for me to let her know someone could have loved her if he only knew.

[Frustratedlady]

2. Huckabee is another good example of this saying...

"Better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt."

His sermons must have been all fire and brimstone. He has little or no tolerance for the plight of others.

[Mnemosyne]

3. K&R nt