From: Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net>
Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:40:25 -0800
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Could we tone down the language a bit?
Marc Riddell wrote:
A least one problem I envision with such MH
Articles in WP is the fact that
you would, in some cases, have patients writing the textbook. There are many
aspects of mental, emotional, and behavioral conditions that are beyond some
persons¹ ability to accept. In the very first month that I signed on as a WP
editor I encountered such a problem. I wanted to upgrade an existing Article
on a chemical dependency-related subject, and immediately encountered strong
resistance from another editor. I was attempting to emphasize the disease
component of the condition, but the editor refused to acknowledge this fact.
Being very new to WP, after a least a week of back and forth with this
editor, of endless diatribes by them, and every one on my edits being
changed, I finally gave up, left the Article, and haven¹t looked back since.
One emotion that this will not evoke in me is surprise. ;-)
I have practiced (one day I may get it right :-)
) in the fields of Clinical
Psychology and Psychotherapy for 42 years now. I wanted to bring some
expertise to the Articles in WP related to my fields, but have backed away.
I would love to see more, well-written Articles on all aspects of MH in the
encyclopedia. I believe they should be written by persons schooled in the
fields, and should be written so that any sentient person could understand
it. For me, the true measure of an ³expert² in something is his or her
ability to explain it to someone who isn¹t.
I'm just glad that I'm not writing in this field. While most fields
already have the dynamic tension between well-meaning but unschooled
amateurs and professionals the inertia of whose schooling may have
involved accepting certain assumptions withut question, mental health
can also involve people who refuse to accept reality on a more personal
level. They can too easily show the respect level of a scientologist.
Scientology: the denial system for the ages.
Still, some amateurs are careful in their research, and some
professionals do not feel offended when their assumptions are questioned.
The only assumption I ever make in my work is: if the person is experiencing
pain it is a signal there is something wrong. My role is to locate the
source of that pain and try to eliminate it. If a person presents with a
knife sticking out of their belly, or a bone is protruding though their
skin, the diagnosis of the source is rather simple. In Mental Health (MH)
which needs to be distinguished from Emotional Health (EH) [another subject
for another time] the search for the source can (and is) much more complex.
It also carries with it a factor not present in most med/surg conditions
cultural stigma.
³Assumption² is a slippery word in my field. In the field of physics, if I
drop an object from a height in our atmosphere, one can reasonably assume it
is going to end up on the ground. This ³assumption² becomes a fact by doing
it. And, there are zillions of incidents in the past that can be pointed to
as verification of that fact. ³Facts² (such as they are) in the field of
Clinical Psychology are based on countless case histories of persons who
have presented with similar symptoms and behaviors, and have responded well
to similar therapies resulting in wellness. And this is not absolute. The
one vital ingredient necessary to consider here are the instincts the
professional caregiver.
The important issue in our context here, as I see it, is that we are trying
to write an encyclopedia of fact, not opinion. If an expert (ouch, yes, I
used the word) in a field writes facts in that field as they know them to
be, I believe it presents a problem when a non-expert (there I did it again)
edits out those facts, and substitutes their opinion.
If the above constitutes a diatribe, so be it. If you don¹t want to hear the
bell, don¹t push the button :-).
I would also like to see links to biographies of
persons in the encyclopedia
who have suffered from these conditions.
I think this last point would run into Wikipedia's verifiability
meat-grinder.
My intent here was to enable persons suffering from these conditions to
understand they are not alone. However, I agree it would create a citation
as well as confidentiality nightmare. Oh well, nice thought.
Ec
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