Language and mental illness

‘I am such an idiot!’ Said the woman sitting behind me in a cafe. This is mild compared to people self-diagnosing themselves at the drop of a hat; one is no longer tidy OCD is the new term used to describe a preference for cleanliness. Language is important anyone who has been diagnosed with a metal illness will tell you the term schizo, spaz or autistic don’t feel particularly empowering.

While mental illness is still stigmatised and feared in society the idea of it has trickled down into everyday speech. This perhaps is a triumph of the system, it no longer has to worry about going out to diagnose, we have become our own policemen. Foucault in his writing did envisage an era where power would be distributed in such a way that it became a means of self-regulation. Visibility as he pointed out was a trap. Mental illness is one such trap, our behaviour is constantly normalised to such an extent that any deviation is automatically classified as mental illness.

Mental illness is also dependant on language as the language to describe mental deviation is almost always unpleasant. Terms we throw about carelessly have an effect on a person.