Labeling

[Xmac]

Labeling, in and of itself, is useful until it becomes a habit in which the label is believed to be a permanent fact that rules out or ignores other possibilities.

Suppression of manifestations of modern society produces more of the same. The energy that is labeled as bad behavior will always find another way to manifest, either in time or in expression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv49RFo1ckQ

[catherine]

I love that, Xmac!! So true! My own son had some "challenges" in school which caused him to drop out at 16 and start his journey as ski bum turned bag boy turned golf pro turned college student turned valedictorian turned public affairs coordinator turned law school student turned defense attorney.

We had never had him tested for ADHD, but I'm SURE if we had he would have been given medication. Maybe that would have been a good thing or maybe a bad thing (he actually did get a prescription for it on his own when he went to law school--but by then it was a tool for him to get through all that reading--not a cure for a "defect"). I'm sure there are many, many parents who think I was a bad parent for not having him evaluated. I think things turned out fine, and he didn't have to carry a label. I personally think that helped him focus on his strengths rather than perceived weaknesses.

I'm starting to believe that we should drop other labels like "alcoholic" or "addict" as well. Geez, aren't we all addicts in one way or another to something? The Franciscan priest and mystic Richard Rohr believes so. (He has a great book called Breathing Under Water).

GREAT YouTube.

[Xmac]

I'm starting to believe that we should drop other labels like "alcoholic" or "addict" as well.

Yup, alcoholic is a particularly sloppy word. It refers to a type of beverage AND a person who may or may not be drinking alcohol. When it comes to people, it associates someone with an image that varies from person to person which, more often than not, stereo types and reduces the individual's humanity in the minds of others.

When it comes to labels like, psychotic, paranoid, anti-social or the more recent ones, ADHD, OCD etc., they are, as I see them, extensions of what's been done all along. That is, dividing up people the way dirty laundry is divided up.

Labels have their place and that place is frequently lost by forgetting they are temporary models in which to understand, not permanent fixtures to be attached (and attached to).