Neglect
Mentalism has been linked to negligence in monitoring for adverse effects of medications (or other interventions), or to viewing such effects as more acceptable than they would be for others. This has been compared to instances of maltreatment based on racism. Mentalism has also been linked to neglect in failing to check for, or fully respect, people's past experiences of abuse or other trauma.
Treatments that do not support choice and self-determination may cause people to re-experience the helplessness, pain, despair, and rage that accompanied the trauma, and yet attempts to cope with this may be labeled as "acting out", "manipulating" or "attention-seeking".
In addition, mentalism can lead to "poor" or "guarded" predictions of the future for a person, which could be an overly pessimistic view skewed by a narrow clinical experience. It could also be made impervious to contrary evidence because those who succeed can be discounted as having been misdiagnosed or as not having the "real" form of a disorder. While some mental health problems can involve very substantial disability and can be very difficult to overcome in society, predictions based on prejudice and stereotypes can be self-fulfilling because individuals pick up on a message that they have no real hope, and realistic hope is said to be a key foundation of recovery. At the same time, a trait or condition might be considered more a form of individual difference that society needs to include and adapt to, in which case a mentalist attitude might be associated with assumptions and prejudices about what constitutes 'normal' society and who is deserving of adaptations, support or consideration.
Read more about this topic: Mentalism (discrimination)
Famous quotes containing the word neglect:
“Infirmity doth still neglect all office
Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind
To suffer with the body.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We now recognize that abuse and neglect may be as frequent in nuclear families as love, protection, and commitment are in nonnuclear families.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“Vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this we need only represent, on the one hand, the numberless benefits which result from vanity, as industry, the arts, fashions, politeness, and taste; and on the other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain nations, a laziness, poverty, a total neglect of everything.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)