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There is an interesting article in the May 13, 2024, issue of The New Yorker entitled “Read The Label: How Psychiatric Diagnoses Create Identities” by Manvir Singh in which Singh describes how psychiatric diagnoses influence the development of the phenomena they name.
Singh writes “As the philosopher Ian Hacking observed, labelling people is very different from labelling quarks or microbes. Quarks and microbes are indifferent to their labels; by contrast, human classifications change how ‘individuals experience themselves - and may even lead people to evolve their feelings and behavior in part because they are so classified.’”
Singh writes further, “Hacking referred to this process, in which naming creates the thing named - and in which the meaning of names can be affected, in turn, by the name bearers - as ‘dynamic nominalism.’”
A client asked me last week, “My husband said that his therapist told him he was borderline. What does that mean?”
What does the name a client is labeled mean for them and for their relationships? A new identity for the individual and the people they are in relationship with is being constructed. Is this labeling helpful or harmful or both?
Three new books—Paige Layle’s “But Everyone Feels This Way: How an Autism Diagnosis Saved My Life,” Patric Gagne’s “Sociopath: A Memoir,” and Alexander Kriss’s “Borderline: The Biography of a Personality Disorder”—illustrate how psychiatric classification shapes the people it describes. It models social identities. It offers scripts for how to behave and explanations for one’s interior life. By promising to tell people who they really are, diagnosis produces personal stakes in the diagnostic system, fortifying it against upheaval.
From “Why We’re Turning Psychiatric Labels Into Identities” by Manvir Singh in The New Yorker, May 13, 2024
The concept of dynamic nominalism means that people tend to turn their labels of identity into a lived experience. One of the tools that fuels the development of dynamic nominalism is the depiction of psychiatric labels in artistic works such as novels, films, song lyrics, memoirs, autobiographies, etc.
Sometimes the depictions of psychiatric labels are helpful to people and other times they may be harmful. The depiction itself is neither good or bad but rather how the consumer of the depiction uses the depiction.
Do you ever talk about depictions of psychiatric labels with friends, family, or professionals, and if so, what has been your experience doing this?
Just as personality tests (see, I’m an introvert!), astrological signs (I’m a Libra!), and generational monikers (I’m Gen Z!) are used to aid self-understanding, so are psychiatric diagnoses. When Paige Layle was fifteen, a psychiatrist told her that she had autism spectrum disorder. She describes the rush of clarity she experienced when hearing the DSM-5 criteria: “I’m not crazy. I’m not making it up. I’m not manipulative or trying to fake anything. . . . There’s a reason why I’m the way that I am.”
From “Why We’re Turning Psychiatric Labels Into Identities” by Manvir Singh in The New Yorker, May 13, 2024
The key words “dynamic nominalism” indicate how a person tends to create the characteristics that the label assigned to them describes which then contributes to the person’s self understanding and their identity. The assignment of the label is an act of power on the part of the expert who is performing the assignment function. This power is given to licensed mental health professionals who have the social sanction to diagnose. With this power we create schizophrenics, depressives, borderlines, autistics, psychopaths, and any number of other identities. To what extent is assigning a psychiatric diagnosis like an astrologer assigning a person to an astrological sign, or the person who administers some sort of psychological screen or test and assigns a personality type to the person such as introvert or extrovert?
Mental health professionals may be reluctant to assign a psychiatric label to a patient being aware of the iatrogenic consequences of such an act, and yet in order to get paid for the service they are providing, they must assign a diagnosis required by the insurance company for payment. This label then becomes a permanent part of the person’s medical record which will influence the perception of the person by other people with access to that person’s medical record for the rest of their life.
I am an introvert and a Capricorn. I also am a dysthymic. I also laugh, guffaw actually, because in my heart of hearts I know that I am none of these things. They are just labels and the meanings they may carry for a perceiver have consequences only in certain contexts and are temporary.
What psychotherapy is about is the ability of people to explore and disclose what they really think, how they really feel, and what they really want without the fear of being assigned a label that will limit their ability to be understood and appreciated at a deep and cosmic level by another human being who will stand in solidarity with them.
So, labeling people is a powerful act with wide and long ranging consequences and should be done with a degree of caution, trepidation, and self awareness. It is not simply a bureaucratic act done for money without a price to be paid by the person so labeled.
Perhaps the motto for mental health professionals should be, “Label with care.”
He has yet to respond as I know it's a lot for him to unpackage and, knowing him, come up with a rebuttal. But I love my father and I know he loves me and I'm hoping that the love I know and experience he too can! I'm hoping he can strip fear from his life and personal theology, so that he can walk in a fuller and deeper understanding of love. Love Wins y'all, love wins!
He has yet to respond as I know it's a lot for him to unpackage and, knowing him, come up with a rebuttal. But I love my father and I know he loves me and I'm hoping that the love I know and experience he too can! I'm hoping he can strip fear from his life and personal theology, so that he can walk in a fuller and deeper understanding of love. Love Wins y'all, love wins!
Hi fellow UUers
I’m relatively new to the UU realm but found my home at my local UU church and we are having our kids dedicated on Sunday.
I’m curious to learn standard practices as a gift to the minister. Does the parent typically give a card and gift to the minister for the dedication? Our current minister was here for an interim period and will be moving on at the end of June. Should I wait and give her a gift then as a thank you for dedicating our babies AND for helping make my UU church our “religious home”?
I’m just curious what is standard in this practice. I’m not historically religious so I have no foundation to compare it with. I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing.
Thanks!
Long-term UU from the Midwest, who will be visiting Pittsburgh on Sunday, June 9. I see there are six UU churches in the area, hoping to narrow down my choice for a church to visit that morning. Any Pittsburgh UUs who can help with my decision?
Long-term UU from the Midwest, who will be visiting Pittsburgh on Sunday, June 9. I see there are six UU churches in the area, hoping to narrow down my choice for a church to visit that morning. Any Pittsburgh UUs who can help with my decision?
Renee Hills
:The September convocation, held in Romania, features dynamic speakers, engaging panel discussions, workshops, and more.
May 16th is the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). UUA Accessibility Resources Coordinator Gretchen Maune shares this reflection on digital accessibility.
In 2007, I was staying at a blind rehabilitation center in Kansas City. Six months prior, I had gone from having 20/15 vision to being almost completely blind over eight rough weeks. I was 24 years old and needed to complete just 15 more credits to finish my Bachelor’s in English so I could move on to grad school, but first, I had to figure out how.
While I enjoyed learning Braille, and techniques for cooking without sight, most of my motivation was reserved for learning to use a computer again. Starting with my family’s Apple II GS, I had been using computers for the vast majority of my life. Being unable to use one for the last several months had made everything from writing capstone papers, to playing Morrowind, to messaging friends impossible, and I was miserable. Cut off from so much, I didn’t know how I was supposed to live my life anymore. When my rehab counselor told me there was software that made it possible for blind people to use a computer, I felt hope and clung to it.
Through the help of a text-to-speech screen reading program called JAWS, I quickly adapted to navigating Windows with my ears instead of my eyes. My instructor, Jim, was the first blind person I can ever remember meeting, and I will be forever grateful to him for all he taught me. One day, as I was practicing surfing the web (come on, it was the 00’s) I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with a particular website. The techniques I’d been taught weren’t working, and though I creatively strove to find a solution, I eventually found myself giving up. Confused, I asked Jim what I was doing wrong, but the answer he gave me was “nothing at all.” That was the day I learned about digital accessibility.
Assistive technologies like screen readers make participating in society possible for me and countless other disabled people. However, these tools can’t make content accessible all by themselves. Application developers, page designers, instructional material creators, and anyone posting something to the internet (so, that would be just about everyone) have to do their part as well, building, editing, or sharing with accessibility in mind.
Thankfully, my UUA colleague, Kasey Kruser, knows just how important digital accessibility is, and is always keeping it in mind with her work. When asked why she thinks accessibility is important as a web developer, she says, “Making our sites as accessible as possible is a great way to help people feel welcomed and included right from the start. Whatever else might be going on in their lives, whatever brought them to our site, I want to know I've done my best to remove frustrations and roadblocks; I hope my efforts make life that much easier for everyone in or looking for our community.”
As someone who relies on accessibility for my professional, entertainment, and spiritual needs, I am reminded daily that we’re all in this together. On this 13th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day, let us design our websites, create our documents, and share our social media with love.
A few of the resources I recommend:
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG, are standards for making digital content accessible to disabled users. These standards are required by many countries and other entities across the globe. Learn more with this WCAG primer.
Whether you’re using mostly text, tables, or graphics, increase your inclusive practices with this guide to creating accessible Microsoft Office documents.
Engage with official GAAD Events and Resources and learn to make your content more accessible!
Photo of Gretchen Maune standing against a gray background. Gretchen has long brown hair and is wearing a black top and holding a cane in their right hand.
Gretchen Maune, MPA, CPACC :: she/they
Accessibility Resources Coordinator
UUA Ministries and Faith Development
May 16th is Global Accessibility Awareness Day
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WWUUD stream