you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

why did they use the word most people use for Bad Person in the name of a medical disorder?

Because they are ableist

do we really need to rehab the word narcissist?

We don't have to use it at all, if someone mean "abuser" or "bad person" they can use those words

shouldn't you be taking this up with the DSM for naming something Self-centered Asshole Disease?

I do have issues with the DSM, where did I say I excuse their use of it?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 23 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Because they are ableist
    I do have issues with the DSM, where did I say I excuse their use of it?

    Wait, so are you saying it's ableist to use the word "narcissist" outside of a medical context, or that the DSM choosing that word for a medical diagnosis is ableist?

    We don't have to use it at all, if someone mean "abuser" or "bad person" they can use those words

    Those words mean different things. If I call someone an "abuser" and/or "bad person" I am not implying they have narcissistic tendencies or issues. Likewise when I call someone (who has not been diagnosed with the personality disorder) a narcissist, I am not calling them an abuser or even necessarily a bad person. It is also a matter of scope and specificity, with there being millions of ways that someone can be a "bad person" and narcissism can be one of the contributing factors. Just because a word is being used as an official diagnostic term does not suddenly make it ableist to use it in other ways or in other contexts.

    Look, I am a disabled person and I have a personality disorder. Specifically, I have Avoidant Personality Disorder. It would be ridiculous of me or anyone else to say that we should stop using the word "avoidant" outside of a psychological diagnostic context. There is nothing ableist about referring to certain behaviors (or people who exhibit those behaviors) as being "avoidant" when we are talking about issues outside of the tiny narrow slice of the population who (like me) are diagnosed with the actual personality disorder that carries that name. "Avoidant" is a regular word that can be used in all sorts of contexts without being even slightly ableist. So too with narcissism or narcissist.

    I am all for consciously and intentionally changing our vocabulary so as to remove the common ableism from it. I've even argued in the past about how we should not use insults like "moron" when it was more common to do so here. But it is also possible to go overboard and label the use of certain words as ableist when they are not. Sometimes that overzealousness, even if it comes from a good place, can do more harm than it does help, as far as encouraging people to recognize the casual ableism in their speech, when you apply it in genuinely inappropriate places.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago

    I do think they're doing a "heads I win, tails you lose" style argument where they say calling someone colloquially a narcissist is inherently ableist because both it's not medically sound terminology a lot of the time but when it is medically-backed it's not allowed because they named a medical diagnosis after a pre-existing social phenomenon. So there's a conflation in terms happening here.

    But they are also correct its dominant current usage is "person i don't like" with a vague air of being legitimized by its association to a medical diagnosis. I'd liken it to how right-wingers call every one they disagree with mentally ill, which we can see is definitely ableist.

  • source
  • parent