site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2982 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 29, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

  1. Some mental disorders are more culturally bound than others, with Schizophrenia being something we see pretty much everywhere with similar patterns but different content being common.
  2. Severity of symptoms is variable, with some with most people experiencing a step-wise decline but with the extent of this being variable.
  3. Less severe or alarming symptoms means less presentation for help ex: hallucinations not being as distressing they can be not as bad, or fit better in the cultural milieu (think religious delusions back in the day), or if someone is more negative symptom predominant (think apathetic, reserved, anti-social).
  4. Religious delusions are common but tend to be unsurprisingly related to the culture at hand. Same for other delusions and hallucinations. Someone in rural Africa might think the chief of the next village over is out to get him, where an American might think it's Joe Biden etc.
  5. Manic episodes and full blown psychosis were historically deadly. If you were manic in a pub in London in 1630 you might get killed in a bar fight and nobody cares or you might end up summarily executed by the police for being a total idiot. It would not surprise me if the same phenomena happens today in certain places.
  6. Not sure if we'd have good quality of research on this though.

I should note that Western psychosis is more likely to be dangerous because of things like easy access to weapons, poor policing, good social safety net etc. Remove those things and they are likely to get killed, unable to arm people, exiled, whatever is my thought.

It's not like violence is Wester specific - read the wiki page on running amok for an interesting example.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats