Posted by chujoe on June 27, 2010, at 11:00:20
In reply to Re: Redirect: Omega 3, posted by Dr. Bob on June 27, 2010, at 1:27:49
One of the first things I noticed about Psychobabble was the way it's organized. Just as a grocery store's organization reveals -- consciously or unconsciously -- the cultural categories of its owners or managers, a site like Psychobabble reveals the cultural categories of its owner-manager. Nothing wrong with this, of course, but the site is clearly more than simply a convenient compilation of information. No system of organization is neutral. When I go shopping in Vietnam, for example, I have to go to a special store for rice. That's because rice is so central to Vietnamese culture and there are so many varieties -- an ordinary little grocery story may not even stock rice!
Violette is correct, then, to note that the system of organization here reflects a kind of parascientific way of conceptualizing mental illness, rather than a holistic one. Practically speaking, this has at least two important consequences: 1. It tends to reinforce that particular, parascientific, medicalized view of mental illness; 2. the practice of redirecting conversations tends to both demote them and cut them short (as Phillipa mentioned). The Alternative board at Psychobable: Where threads go to die.
Given the ability to search the site, it's a little difficult to understand why there is a need for all these divisions except that the divisions themselves reflect a commitment to a particular view of mental illness. My preference for the site would be to have two boards: the main discussion board and one for administrative issues such as this one.
poster:chujoe
thread:952336
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20100321/msgs/952366.html