We all love labelling. It's not often admitted, but it seems to be a behaviour we’re all drawn towards. Coming up with, usually, a singular word to describe something/s. A behaviour, an object, an opinion, a state of mind, events, essentially everything we’ve come to know is a label in some form or another. Labels are a way of encapsulating a series of different, although similar(so we think) ideas into one general term. Essentially we use it to categorise thoughts and feelings.
With this categorisation of thoughts, the process of thinking, conceptualising ideas and communicating is made much easier. We’re able to say a word and have it carry a whole world of complex meanings and ideas. Although from all this labelling, we tend to generalise and become lazy in our way of thinking.
It seems like once we’re able to describe something with a word, or label we suddenly think it's fully understood, through some simple constrictive word definition. As explained, the whole concept is that many different ideas are carried within it, that has been built up through time. Yet, people take the word just as itself, as a singular thing. As if separate from everything else. Throwing these words around, with no actual grasp on the meaning.
Taking this a step further, we trick ourselves into thinking the labels are based in reality. Forgetting they’re essentially just current human interpretations of things. Labelling through the lens of our current point in understanding. This eventually starts limiting our thoughts, trying to explain things from these old limited generalisations.
When it comes to something like mental illness. The labelling is wildly overused. Especially for a subject we still barely understand. Our brain. Nowadays the word depression is thrown around quite often. What does it mean, though?
A simple explanation, depression is an extension of sadness. It's sadness but built up to become a habit of the brain. Usually a way of coping due to whatever life circumstances, then that's called depression. What's currently often said is that depression is a deficiency of certain chemicals in the brain, and that’s that. Well, this makes sense. Although to say this is the “cause”, is like saying the reason a car runs and can drive is because of the wheels. When really, many things go into making a car drive, including the wheels. The same could be said about depression, many factors may be the cause, that can be very different from person to person, and it shouldn’t be limited to the current constrictive scientific view that is imposed on almost everything. The question of what causes depression can be switched to “what causes sadness?”. From moving the label to something broader, and understood, you can get a much better grasp on what the question is and the reason it's so hard to enclose in some simple answer that people are looking for.
What about something like narcissism? This is where the use of labels shows a darker side. The use of the word narcissism or ‘narcissist’, as if they’re a separate entity, or inhuman. It’s a way of turning the subject into a thing, separate from human, often a “monster”. An understandable perspective, someone with narcissism can ruin peoples lives. But it still is disregarding the fact that they are human, that the way they act is a defence, usually against traumatic childhood experiences or just life in general. The hate and anger that is felt from a person with narcissism, are them. That’s how they feel all the time. When people are negatively affected by narcissists, it’s because the narcissist let them in on their reality. Just as everyone else does, with everyone. We impose and communicate our reality with the people around us. They aren’t some kind of monster, running by different rules. They’re as human as you, and that’s the only way for them to cope. This use of labelling is obviously just a way of turning the person with narcissism into a separate entity, so whoever has suffered because of them can distance them selfs. Broadly, so humanity can distance itself from any destructive qualities that they don't like to see within them selfs, by making the person inhuman. Which is somewhat understandable, but it shouldn’t be the way the word, and person is viewed in all contexts.
When labelling and “thinking” about mental illness we forget the fact that all these terms are new and the complexity of the brain is still barely understood. We attach ourself’s to all these labels, letting them have a bigger impact on reality than they actually do. It turns into a way of self-identification, holding people back from any sort of progression, the label becomes apart of who you are. Our minds are complex, and if you think we understand how they truly work, just look at the world and the way people act. We constantly trick ourselves. The rules apply all the more when it comes to the brain literally trying to understand itself.
It was less than 50 years ago that homosexuality was called a mental illness. We can look back and think how dumb we must have been, but the same games are being played that led to these misinterpretations. This also points out that mental illness is only distinguished as such when society views it negatively. It’s not like the brain is looked at, and they can go, “Oh, that’s the depressed part”. We're looking at a highly complex system with no easily definable explanation, yet imposing cultural, societal biases upon it. What do we know is good or bad? It seems to change every few years and is very different from individual to individual. These labels shouldn’t be so heavily attached to ourselves and our identity. We know nothing.
With this categorisation of thoughts, the process of thinking, conceptualising ideas and communicating is made much easier. We’re able to say a word and have it carry a whole world of complex meanings and ideas. Although from all this labelling, we tend to generalise and become lazy in our way of thinking.
It seems like once we’re able to describe something with a word, or label we suddenly think it's fully understood, through some simple constrictive word definition. As explained, the whole concept is that many different ideas are carried within it, that has been built up through time. Yet, people take the word just as itself, as a singular thing. As if separate from everything else. Throwing these words around, with no actual grasp on the meaning.
Taking this a step further, we trick ourselves into thinking the labels are based in reality. Forgetting they’re essentially just current human interpretations of things. Labelling through the lens of our current point in understanding. This eventually starts limiting our thoughts, trying to explain things from these old limited generalisations.
When it comes to something like mental illness. The labelling is wildly overused. Especially for a subject we still barely understand. Our brain. Nowadays the word depression is thrown around quite often. What does it mean, though?
A simple explanation, depression is an extension of sadness. It's sadness but built up to become a habit of the brain. Usually a way of coping due to whatever life circumstances, then that's called depression. What's currently often said is that depression is a deficiency of certain chemicals in the brain, and that’s that. Well, this makes sense. Although to say this is the “cause”, is like saying the reason a car runs and can drive is because of the wheels. When really, many things go into making a car drive, including the wheels. The same could be said about depression, many factors may be the cause, that can be very different from person to person, and it shouldn’t be limited to the current constrictive scientific view that is imposed on almost everything. The question of what causes depression can be switched to “what causes sadness?”. From moving the label to something broader, and understood, you can get a much better grasp on what the question is and the reason it's so hard to enclose in some simple answer that people are looking for.
What about something like narcissism? This is where the use of labels shows a darker side. The use of the word narcissism or ‘narcissist’, as if they’re a separate entity, or inhuman. It’s a way of turning the subject into a thing, separate from human, often a “monster”. An understandable perspective, someone with narcissism can ruin peoples lives. But it still is disregarding the fact that they are human, that the way they act is a defence, usually against traumatic childhood experiences or just life in general. The hate and anger that is felt from a person with narcissism, are them. That’s how they feel all the time. When people are negatively affected by narcissists, it’s because the narcissist let them in on their reality. Just as everyone else does, with everyone. We impose and communicate our reality with the people around us. They aren’t some kind of monster, running by different rules. They’re as human as you, and that’s the only way for them to cope. This use of labelling is obviously just a way of turning the person with narcissism into a separate entity, so whoever has suffered because of them can distance them selfs. Broadly, so humanity can distance itself from any destructive qualities that they don't like to see within them selfs, by making the person inhuman. Which is somewhat understandable, but it shouldn’t be the way the word, and person is viewed in all contexts.
When labelling and “thinking” about mental illness we forget the fact that all these terms are new and the complexity of the brain is still barely understood. We attach ourself’s to all these labels, letting them have a bigger impact on reality than they actually do. It turns into a way of self-identification, holding people back from any sort of progression, the label becomes apart of who you are. Our minds are complex, and if you think we understand how they truly work, just look at the world and the way people act. We constantly trick ourselves. The rules apply all the more when it comes to the brain literally trying to understand itself.
It was less than 50 years ago that homosexuality was called a mental illness. We can look back and think how dumb we must have been, but the same games are being played that led to these misinterpretations. This also points out that mental illness is only distinguished as such when society views it negatively. It’s not like the brain is looked at, and they can go, “Oh, that’s the depressed part”. We're looking at a highly complex system with no easily definable explanation, yet imposing cultural, societal biases upon it. What do we know is good or bad? It seems to change every few years and is very different from individual to individual. These labels shouldn’t be so heavily attached to ourselves and our identity. We know nothing.
