Merged Psychological conditions are illusory

[Lowpro]

First off, I'll go ahead and deny you outright that dyslexia is a method of disempowering people as a method to draw a distinction of superiority because it's obviously not the case (unless you yourself feel it's the case and your feelings give you bias of course; this is what I imagine occurs with you)

Secondly, you haven't discussed what dyslexia actually is. Jonesboy, I propose you're developing a strawman. You won't actually tell us what dyslexia is. Instead you say dyslexia is a method of disempowering those who fall into a particular range of reading skill and slapping your strawman all the while knowing that whatever you're calling dyslexia is not actually dyslexia.

This is not how dyslexia is determined or at least, only someone with the most ignorant and superficial thought can draw this conclusion.

Dyslexia is often symptomatic of other neurological causes. It is a symptom oftentimes. Because of this I can hardly believe that it's a method to disempower those with it and divide superior vs inferior.

It is not arbitrary at all, however I know there are a lot of people who freely diagnose themselves with dyslexia to defer responsibility for screwing up when reading something, such as when someone reads "dicks" instead of "ducks" but that's not dyslexia.

Your thoughts on aphasias Jonesboy?

 

[Jonesboy]

If I ask someone with dyslexia to read something I just wrote, letter by letter as they appear to them, and several or all are in the wrong or reverse order, I can get a pretty good idea of what they mean by "I have dyslexia."
What other well known medical conditions don't you believe in?

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.
The term "dyslexia" adds nothing to understanding what you have described.

 

[Dancing David]

It is difficult to debunk dyslexia because the term doesn't mean anything. Medics use "dyslexia" as a disempowering term of abuse, but by dressing it up as a meaningless "condition" they can get followers. Their willing victims, the so-called "dyslexics" enjoy the pseudo-scientific intrigue that now surrounds their quite ordinary difficulty in reading.

Individuals have a range of reading skills: hardly unexpected. To make victims from these normal distribution patterns a scientist or medic will arbitrarily declare certain reading ranges as a "condition", as if it has some defining property that distinguishes it from the rest. It does not, of course. Medics privilege the binary - one range is privileged over the other as being not a condition.

The best thing to say to someone who says they are dyslexic is not the obvious "I don't believe you", which I used to say, but is "I don't know what you mean". This is because they, and no-one else, knows what they mean.

Image reversal is real, the way I read is real as is my inability to spell english phonetically. The consistent pattern of patterns in failing to read at age level/cohort is consisten and not imaginary.

You have no data and evidence just a foolish opinion.

 

[Dancing David]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.
The term "dyslexia" adds nothing to understanding what you have described.

Then you are ignorant of what defines dyslexia. It does not disempower people, people who have it will not learn to read when they are taught with teh standard methods, they need other strategies.

 

[Twiler]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.
The term "dyslexia" adds nothing to understanding what you have described.

I understand dyslexia to be a mental condition that restricts the ability to distinguish symbols. I also understand that this understanding is incomplete, and that other people know more about it than I do.

What specific aspects of the studies that have been made concerning dyslexia do you feel are flawed?

I rather doubt that you have voiced these ideas, in person, to people who actually suffer from dyslexia.

 

[Tomtomkent]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.
The term "dyslexia" adds nothing to understanding what you have described.

Who exactly is "we"? As far as I can tell most people understand the word just fine to mean as "congenital word blindness" if they are old fashioned or as "a learning difficulty which presents a difficulty with one or more of the following: phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid naming."

The whole O/P seems based on the idea that YOU don't understand a term. Yet feel the need to comment anyway. May I suggest in future you try to open a thread with an informed opinion?

 

[Dancing David]

And to my understanding it is a sliding scale. Some people may need more CBT than medication. Others might need more medication than therapy. The problem psychology is that too many people, as with the O/P here, seem to mistake "in and of the mind" as "made up and not real". Psychology may sound like Woo, and it may be argued that cognitive sciences are "soft", but they retain the same standards of evidence and process to be "science".

To say that people who have PTSD just need to "trip" to get over it is to greatly misunderstand the way the mind processes information and the two way relationship between emotion and physiological effects. If shouting "Get over it man!" worked, who on earth would have ever suffered from PTSD? PTSD is the failure to, not the process of, "dealing with" traumatic experiences.

I agree, in general however mild mental disorders do not need medication to be treated (CBT/medication are the same is tests), those that are moderate and severe respond best to medication and CBT.

I agree that Jonesboy is very wrong in his opinion that it just resolves itself and that flashbacks are healing. But then I am a moderate behaviorsit.

 

[Dinwar]

Individuals have a range of reading skills: hardly unexpected. To make victims from these normal distribution patterns a scientist or medic will arbitrarily declare certain reading ranges as a "condition", as if it has some defining property that distinguishes it from the rest.

I'm so glad that all of the trouble I had reading the field notes from dislexic field workers is just figments of their imagination! Stupid, lazy people--how DARE they use modern medical science to get away with making MY life easier?!

Also, the above quote is just stupid. There is a natural range of heights in humans--yet dwarfism is a real thing, associated with a real genetic mutation and distinctly different from the normal variation. There's a natural variation in bone and muscle strenght, but that family in Germany with nearly unbreakable bones (practically speaking) and superhero-level strength isn't simply another datapoint, but represent a new mutation and a distinctly different system than the normal distribution. Just because something has a natural deviation in a population doesn't mean that the extremes aren't caused by something else.

You really need to take a statistics class--just because something looks like a single population doesn't mean that it is. Your interpretation of the data is entirely skewed (see what I did there?) by your ideological biases.

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.

This is pure Argument from Personal Ignorance. I thought you studied philosophy somewhere. I'm getign really, really tempted to start calling you a fraud on that count...

 

[Tracy Dalziel]

Could anyone explain the diagnostic criteria for dyslexia ? I do believe in its existence but I must admit it sounds as if it would be difficult to diagnose. I have a few friends who are school teachers and they have said that they believe many genuine cases go under the radar in children who are perhaps deprived but that the children of more pushy parents are often given what is probably an incorrect diagnosis because mum and dad just couldn't accept that their child just wasn't that bright in the language department. They also have the opinion that this could give the said kids an unfair advantage in written examinations as it entitles them to extra time and perhaps help from a scribe.

 

[Dinwar]

Well, I'm no expert but I'd think that the first part of a diagnosis is to talk to an expert, not Mommy and Daddy or the teacher. No slight against any of the three--it's just that I don't go to my mechanic for medical advice, or my vet for car repairs, and I don't think that either teachers or parents are universally qualified to diagnos this sort of issue (obviously, parents and teachers who study this sort of thing are exceptions--I DO know MDs who double as mechanics, and the like).

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder isn't an illness. It is also not a disorder, as a disorder isn't a scientific fact but a veiled social value.

Researchers such as Stanislav Grof have shown that hyperventilation and flashbacks with intense emotional involvement are powerful, natural healing responses that are extremey healing events if allowed, supported, encouraged and completed. Various drug and non-drug techniques have been employed to this effect.

Mainstream medicine under the hegemony of the medical model and a misplaced christianity-based emotional puritanism has pathologised these natural healing events. Hyperventilation, for example, has many myths associated with it, ranging from nervous breakdown, to dangerous oxygen/carbon dioxide "imbalance", to "psychotic breaks". Typically, doctors will panic when faced with a hyperventilation episode, and may employ sedatives or talk people down.

PTSD is not a problem but is itself a healing and an opportunity, unless one employs mainstream medicine, when this healing response is routinely sedated. Outside of medicine, there are many opportunities for working with this ancient, natural process in a productive, positive way.

Your personal knowledge and experience base on this subject appears to be insufficient.

Soldiers deep-throating a 12gauge shotgun is not "a healing and an opportunity" for themselves or any one they know.

First responders drinking themselves to sleep every night to try to prevent the recurring dreams is not a "natural healing response."

Being upset about a cop shooting his wife and then deep-throating a PAIR of Glocks isn't "misplaced christianity-based emotional puritanism."

 

[Tracy Dalziel]

Well, I'm no expert but I'd think that the first part of a diagnosis is to talk to an expert, not Mommy and Daddy or the teacher. No slight against any of the three--it's just that I don't go to my mechanic for medical advice, or my vet for car repairs, and I don't think that either teachers or parents are universally qualified to diagnos this sort of issue (obviously, parents and teachers who study this sort of thing are exceptions--I DO know MDs who double as mechanics, and the like).

That's the point. How does the expert know ? What are the criteria they use and are these both accurate and objective ? To illustrate, I know people who have feigned depression to be declared unfit for work and stay on sick pay - all they did was look up the symptoms in a medical dictionary and regurgitated them to the doctor (expert) when asked. Maybe the same principles could apply here i.e. the subject could mislead the investigator subconciously with 'coaching' from the parents.

 

[jj]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.

!dnatsrednu ton od uoy spahreP

 

[zooterkin]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.

Nonsense. But it is a bit unfair on dyslexics to have the name of their condition so hard to spell.

 

[Dinwar]

That's the point. How does the expert know ?

I'd be curious myself, but I know there is a definition (I've seen it before, just can't recall it offhand). And while it can be misdiagnosed, a misdiagnosis doesn't negate the validity of the condition.

 

[Drachasor]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.
The term "dyslexia" adds nothing to understanding what you have described.

There are actually multiple types of reading disorders. Dyslexia is just ONE of them and it means something in particular. Just because you are ignorant of this doesn't make it less true.

One thing, for instance, is that dyslexics have trouble distinguishing between similar sounds in written words. "buh", "guh", and "duh" can give them trouble as an example, and confusion there can makes it harder to read a word.

 

[jj]

There are actually multiple types of reading disorders. Dyslexia is just ONE of them and it means something in particular. Just because you are ignorant of this doesn't make it less true.

One thing, for instance, is that dyslexics have trouble distinguishing between similar sounds in written words. "buh", "guh", and "duh" can give them trouble as an example, and confusion there can makes it harder to read a word.

Another kind is reversal, either on reading, or on writing. This is why at least one person can't use handwriting for a hill of beans, but can type at a remarkable rate, since when he pushes the 'b' button it makes a b, not a d or a p or a q, and then it moves the cursor the right direction. In short, the keyboard does all the hard parts.

 

[fuelair]

So, people with debilitating PTSD who do not seek treatment for decades should be fine if they allow their panic attacks and nightmares to play out to the "end"?

I am thinking of Ron Popeil on late night TV here (credit where credit's due and all) but:

"It's a physist and a psychiatrist too!!! But, just listen, for only 9.99 plus shipping we throw in Physician and psychologist . That's right folks it's time to rush to your phone and order this 4 piece tool-you-can't-do- without for a limited time at just 9.99 and only 42.50 for shipping - call now supplies are limited to stuck on hand!!!"

 

[Dancing David]

Could anyone explain the diagnostic criteria for dyslexia ? I do believe in its existence but I must admit it sounds as if it would be difficult to diagnose. I have a few friends who are school teachers and they have said that they believe many genuine cases go under the radar in children who are perhaps deprived but that the children of more pushy parents are often given what is probably an incorrect diagnosis because mum and dad just couldn't accept that their child just wasn't that bright in the language department. They also have the opinion that this could give the said kids an unfair advantage in written examinations as it entitles them to extra time and perhaps help from a scribe.

there are criteria for diagnosis, you can't just buy it. As much as I would have like to spell english phonetically, I can't. My mother saying "Sound out the word 'about'." just makes no sense to me, dysphonetic dyslexia. You can say it all you want, I had to memorize it a,b,o,u,t. Now I know it is ab+out but it made no nsense to me at the time.

Now the DSM labels it reading disorder:

Reading achievement. as measured by individually administered standardized tests of reading accuracy or comprehension. is substantially below that expected given the person's chronological age, measured intelligence, and age-appropriate education.

B. The disturbance in Criterion A significantly interferes with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require reading skills.

C. If a sensory deficit is present, the reading difficulties are in excess of those usually associated with it..



http://dyslexia.learninginfo.org/dysphonetic.htm

There are two apparent pathways, a visualization pathway and an auditory pathway which seem to be effected.

Now the funny thing is I can recreate music in my head, I can hear it easily. I can't sing it, more of that auditory reproduction, but I can tune it, I can replay it with time.

So while I can't sing on pitch, which is very annoying to others, I can hear the tones and play them on an instrument. But I can not sing worth a lick.

 

[Dancing David]

Now the defintion of learning disability is an interesting one, there is a baseline test of 'intelligence', usually there are a variety of them. A student that tests well but preforms poorly in the classroom at a significant level is considered to have a learnining disability.

Now these kids do often have one area of deficit, although the visual processing and auditory procesing disorders can be specific or general, mine is very related to hearing the sounds in words and turning them into letters, but music I understand.

So child that tests as 'x' but is significantly struggling 'below x' in an area is 'learning disabled'.