WOULD TOM PAINE AND EMMA GOLDMAN BEEN DIAGNOSED AS ODD AND GIVEN

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

WOULD TOM PAINE AND EMMA GOLDMAN BEEN DIAGNOSED AS ODD AND GIVEN
RITALIN?

BRUCE LEVINE, ALTERNET - For a generation now, disruptive young
Americans who rebel against authority figures have been increasingly
diagnosed with mental illnesses and medicated with psychiatric
(psychotropic) drugs.

Disruptive young people who are medicated with Ritalin, Adderall and
other amphetamines routinely report that these drugs make them "care
less" about their boredom, resentments and other negative emotions, thus
making them more compliant and manageable. And so-called atypical
antipsychotics such as Risperdal and Zyprexa -- powerful tranquilizing
drugs -- are increasingly prescribed to disruptive young Americans, even
though in most cases they are not displaying any psychotic symptoms. . .


In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association created oppositional
defiant disorder, defining it as "a pattern of negativistic, hostile and
defiant behavior." The official symptoms of ODD include "often actively
defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules" and "often
argues with adults." While ODD-diagnosed young people are obnoxious with
adults they don't respect, these kids can be a delight with adults they
do respect; yet many of them are medicated with psychotropic drugs.

An even more common reaction to oppressive authorities than overt
defiance is some type of passive defiance.

John Holt, the late school critic, described passive-aggressive
strategies employed by prisoners in concentration camps and slaves on
plantations, as well as some children in classrooms. Holt pointed out
that subjects may attempt to appease their rulers while still satisfying
some part of their own desire for dignity "by putting on a mask, by
acting much more stupid and incompetent than they really are, by denying
their rulers the full use of their intelligence and ability, by
declaring their minds and spirits free of their enslaved bodies."

Holt observed that by "going stupid" in a classroom, children frustrate
authorities through withdrawing the most intelligent and creative parts
of their minds from the scene, thus achieving some sense of potency.

Going stupid -- or passive aggression -- is one of many non-disease
explanations for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Studies show
that virtually all ADHD-diagnosed children will pay attention to
activities that they enjoy or that they have chosen. In other words,
when ADHD-labeled kids are having a good time and in control, the
"disease" goes away. . .

It would certainly be a dream of Big Pharma and those who favor an
authoritarian society if every would-be Tom Paine -- or Crazy Horse,
Tecumseh, Emma Goldman or Malcolm X -- were diagnosed as a youngster
with mental illness and quieted with a lifelong regimen of chill pills.
The question is: Has this dream become reality?

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/75081/?page=entire

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||