Dirty Diagnosis

Community. Identity. Stability. These three words served as the national motto of Aldous Huxley’s fictional city 'World State,' and a resounding theme throughout all of Brave New World. In Huxley’s dystopic tale, he paints an image of a planet where humans are incubated, hatched like farm-fowl, and raised according to a pre-determined set of social standards--thereby rendering them void of all free-will. The sterile, drug-numbed populace is constantly reminded of their place in the social hierarchy of World State, and thus can aspire to achieve nothing more than the standard.

When I read a science fiction novel or watch a sci-fi movie, I can’t help but consider the idea that there actually is ‘science’ that goes along with the fiction. Of course—some sci-fi prophecies are more right-on than others. Take Orwell’s 1984, for example. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people (myself included) exclaim "Big Brother’s watching" as they glaze over some article about cameras at traffic intersections, or learn that Google now has a "street view" with actual photos of people’s houses (thankfully not in real-time…yet anyways). Even Ayn Rand's Anthem was arguably on-track, ) with its foreboding depiction of a world where the concept of individuality has been abolished, and each person is issued a common name consisting of a series of numbers.

Despite the apparent differences present in the writings of Orwell, Huxley, and Rand, it’s hard to ignore the fact that one unified theme is commonly present: conformity.

What prompted me to ponder this slightly depressing and highly geeky subject was a friend of mine, who just last week proclaimed to me with full conviction "Kristen, you have a personality disorder." So sure of this idea he was, that he proceeded to outline each and every piece of evidence supporting his case, without even pausing to consider the fact that people usually don’t take this kind of criticism well…unless we’re paying good money to a reputable authority to hear it. He, being a 3rd-year med student, probably assumed he possessed that authority. I thought differently.

Histrionic personality disorder. That's what he classified me as having. A person with this "illness" will exhibit these characteristics:

1. self-dramatization, theatricality, exaggerated expression of emotions
2. suggestibility, easily influenced by others or by circumstances;
3. shallow and labile affectivity;
4. continual seeking for excitement and activities in which the patient is the centre of attention;
5. inappropriate seductiveness in appearance or behaviour;
6. over-concern with physical attractiveness.


Now, I could launch into a four-page diatribe defending my perfectly ordered and otherwise quite stable personality—but instead I’ll just focus on the part of my friend’s statement that really pissed me off: his labeling me as a person with a problem, and his complete disregard of the notion that people, as a result of their genetics and personal experiences, are inherently different. Society has become so obsessed with understanding the human condition, that we've nearly succeeded in abandoning all of the nuances and idiosyncrasies that serve to define us as individuals.

Bipolar. Overweight. ADHD. Antisocial. Obsessive Compulsive. Dependent. Emotionally Unstable. These words resound throughout hospitals, schools, offices and televisions, and serve to negatively stigmatize what are otherwise normal side-effects of life. Let's face it--livin' ain't always easy. No one ever said it would be. And what makes it even harder is society (namely the medical community) reinforcing the idea that everyone should act a certain way or be branded as a deviant. How are future generations ever going to learn to cope with their problems when they think that any situation is diagnosable and treatable by pills?Bottom line- the more we characterize, isolate, and medicate our individuals, the more we begin to resemble a world not unlike that described by the aforementioned writers--where everything is ordered, controlled, and deadened.