I don't believe in labeling and here's why

The labeling in our country has gotten way out of hand and here are some aspects of that history to consider and reflect on.

By degree I have a Masters in Social Work administration having gone through the university public school education system.

In researching why our many bureaucratic systems (child care licensing, child protective services, kindergartens, grade, middle, high and college schools, the military, etc) keep failing the citizens of the US, I found the threads that now make up the fabric of America comes from the German/Austrian cultures (long before the current geographical boundaries). A relatively few select citizens from this country in the early and mid-1800s were enamored of the German/Austrian ways of living and more importantly, controlling life.

Government bureaucratic workers to whom vast sums of your money goes to (yes, your taxes)are not in touch with where they come from, who they are and why they quietly and unquestioningly accept the indoctrination of our school and mental health care systems.

Sigi never became famous until age 50 after he came to America for one visit. Yes, I mean Freud. His full name is Sigismund Schlomo Freud. Sigi was sexually abused by a nanny, was a cocaine addict, it made a hole in his nose, he had 30 operations on his mouth, he slept with his sister-in-law with his wife in the house and the man committed suicide. This...this is the man America turned to for mental health?

The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) used by doctors and social workers has ballooned to over 300 categories, this is the book Step-Ford licensed professionals use to diagnose you and your children.

Let the labeling begin. From one diagnostic category to over 300. Over 1000 pages now in the "manual".

Let critical thinking be denigrated. Let labels prevent us from seeing the individual. Let us begin burying family, community and national secrets under psychiatric labels.

•1840 was the start of statistically keeping data on mental illness in institutions for the insane and had a single category: “idiocy/insanity”.

• By 1880 they added a few more including “dementia”.

• By 1917 an Army committee that will later become the APA (American Psychiatric Association) increased the number to 22. Wow, the APA was born from the War to end all Wars!

• WW II saw large scale involvement of psychiatry in selecting soldiers to be in our military. Wow, the Army’s work was a precursor to the DSM-I the first DSM book? Guess who was head of the APA in 1952? It was Donald Ewen Cameron who was best known for his MK-ULTRA-related mind-control and behavior modification research for the CIA. Wow, and I thought bringing the Prussian Army into our school system was bad.

• By 1952, the manual was 130 pages with 106 mental disorders (and schizophrenia was added).

• By 1980, just five years after the end of the Vietnam War, the DSM would grow, with the help of a committee of 27, and increase to 494 pages with 265 diagnostic categories.

• By 1987, it grew to 567 pages with 292 diagnoses.

• By 1994, we are up to 886 pages and 296 disorders.

Since then someone recently told me it is over 300. Over 300 to choose from and perhaps 1000 pages to read through. Sounds like the current health care bill mess with 1400 pages. Can be mind boggling.

Guess which label out of the more than 300 is used most by the “professionals” when they submit their billings? If you said “Other”, you would be right.

People aren't labels. Who people are and what they need are contained in their stories. The stories unlock any puzzle or difficulty that they may be experiencing.