DST 500 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Thomas Szasz, Dysesthesia, Aethiopia

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Disability Studies
• Course: DST 500
• Professor: Jenna Reid

Document Summary

Examine how race is equated with insanity, how definitions of both change as a result. Drapetomania: mi where black slaves ran away from their masters. Dysaesthesia aethiopia: madness where slave is a rascal and disrespects masters" property. The boundaries of sanity align closely with the perceived borders of the racial status quo. Article in wapo in 2005 re: ethnic trends in schizo--affects all groups at same rate, but diagnosis 4x higher in black people than white people. Today, psychiatry = mi from disordered brain biology, schizo being the most biologically based, textbooks say schizo affects 1% of any population, but still, Black ppl overdiagnosed + also not as likely to be diagnosed with depression/bipolar. Argument: race impacts medical community because racial tensions are structured into clinical interactions long before dr/patients enter exam rooms. Form of institutional racism - embedded in f(x) of social structures and institutions.