Does Your Psychological Diagnosis Mean Much Today?

Psychology's delayed reaction to the inhumanity of unitary dominance over collective collaboration has resulted in considerable personal and systemic harms to multiple intersections of race, gender, ability, and social status.

Collective cultures make up 80% of the world, yet we still diagnose psychological disorders based on research using 17th century individualistic ideology?

The existing psychological framework serves 20% of the people of the world, assuming its got that right too. It serves a part of the world that believes in universality, that we’re all the same, blind to the social and cultural joys of being human.

In Maori culture, and most indigenous cultures, our ancestors and our progeny, the earth, water, sky, animals, and all things in, around, and between nature is in us including the connection between us, so to separate those parts of us, like turning a boil-up into meat and spuds, won't work and trying to do so an only cause pain not dissimilar from a lobotomy.

While the DSM has made great strides toward acknowledging cultural influences on psychological diagnosis in comparison to the ICD, the globalisation of indigenous cultures is needed to work from real practical indigenous knowledge.

Consider the Maori whakatauki (proverb) “The taiaha may be parried aside but words go straight to the heart” and the english version, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt.”

Another example of differing values is the story of the Japanese olympian who thanked her coach and team compared to the American olympian who spoke of his intense work schedule.

Our values are intricately tied to our diverse cultural frameworks which can completely change our perceptions and interpretations of the words, emotions, and behaviours of ourselves and others.

Some people think they are isolated from the rest of the world, that they have their own culture, that they don’t affect or aren’t affected by the social and cultural world, while others are completely immersed and feel very interconnected.

Without reading ahead, you can test your self-concept and cultural meanings and values by completing the following 20 statements test:

The Twenty Statements Test.

Write down twenty different responses to the question “Who am I?” Don’t worry about evaluating the logic or importance of your responses — just write the statements quickly and in whatever order they occur to you. Give yourself five minutes to complete this task.

Once done, score below.

Now it’s time to score your responses according to the following four categories.

Evaluate, to the best of your ability, which responses fall into the A-mode, B-mode, C-mode, and D-mode categories.

• A-mode responses are physical characteristics or attributes. Examples: “I am short”; “I am a Wisconsin resident”; “I am strong”; “I am tired.”

• B-mode responses describe socially defined relationships, roles and statuses usually associated with group membership of some sort. Examples: “I am a college student”; “I am a Catholic”; “I am an African American”; “I am a gamer”; “I am a daughter”; “I am a sales clerk.”

• C-mode responses reflect personal traits, styles of behavior, or emotional states. Examples: “I am a happy person”; “I am a country music fan”; “I am competitive”; “I am laid-back”; “I am a fashionable dresser.”

• D-mode responses are more general than specific; they may express an abstract or existential quality: “I am me”; “I am part of the universe”; “I am a human being ”; “I am alive.”

You may have some difficulty deciding how to categorize certain responses — for example, where does “I am an American” go? Is it an A-mode, because it is where I live as a physical location, or is it a B-mode, because it is my nationality and the country with which I identify? Or where does “I am lazy” go? Is it an A-mode, because it describes my current physical state, or is it a C-mode, because it is one of my habitual character traits? Use your best judgment.

Now count the number of each type of response and provide the totals for each mode at the bottom.

What your results mean:

According to Kuhn and other social psychologists:

Those with more A-mode responses may feel that they have a “skin deep” self-concept, based more on their appearance to others than on their internal qualities.

The primary characteristics of the B-mode, or “institutional,” self is a willingness to adhere to group standards and accept group obligations as well as an orientation toward the future and a sense that the individual is linked to others.

The primary characteristics of the C-mode, or “impulsive,” self is the pursuit of individual satisfaction, an orientation toward the present, and a sense that the individual should not be linked to others and that group obligations inhibit individual expression.

Those with more D-mode responses are harder to categorize and may feel uncertain about the source of their sense of self

see: The Twenty Statements Test At Sociology 101

Diagnoses are useful to professionals who can use the criteria and research to make suitable treatment decisions, but whether or not identifying with a particular disorder or set of disorders is beneficial to clients is still debatable, and I’d suggest should be done with careful consideration.

If we accept that western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) thinking serves a small percentage of the world and start to embrace difference and rebuild connections, not just with hearsay, but with real systemic change, we could move as a people so much quicker than we can cemented in values that privilege some, but disadvantage others.

Thanks for reading.

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