Re: CHAT: Profile of a Conlanger

Irina Rempt wrote:

> On Thu, 13 May 1999, Eli Naeher wrote:
>
> > It certainly does
> > seem as if the incidence of mental illness is unusually high on this list,
> > which makes me even more inclined to think that "mental illness" is simply
> > societally legitimized prejudice.
>
> I think you may be right. The other possibility (that conlanging is a
> symptom of mental disorder) doesn't appeal to me.
>
> I've never been under treatment for mental illness (I know I'm not
> unique, but we may be a minority), and it strikes me that nearly all
> the *Americans* have - I read once that 80% of American adults and
> 60% of American teenagers have, sometime in their life, been treated
> for mental disorder. Is it really a cultural thing, that is, is the
> threshold for actually going to see a shrink so much lower in the
> United States than in Europe, or is it that the absolute incidence of
> mental illness is higher in the United States than in Europe?
If it's any consolation, I'm American, and I've never seen a shrink
about anything.  Not that I haven't had problems in my life, but
when these have occurred, I have always been able either to work
them out for myself, or to ask my family about it.   I mean no offense
to anyone, but I was a little surprised, too, to see all the people talking
about their experience with shrinks... but different people have different
experiences, so there's no way for me to judge, one way or the other,
whether that was a good or bad thing (that is, whether it's following in the
phenomenon that some people in America get prescribed for illnesses a
little more often than elsewhere).


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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and
oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil
spirits at the dawn of day. - Thomas Jefferson
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