Asperger’s, Aliens, America

Last-ditch attempts by British citizen Gary McKinnon to prevent his extradition to the United States (US) for “the biggest military computer hack of all time” have recently been rejected by the home secretary. This will make McKinnon the first person in the world to be extradited to the US for computer misuse.

McKinnon, however, insists that his actions were simply a misguided attempt to uncover evidence of “UFO technology” that he believed was being concealed by the US government, rather than a maliciously motivated attempt to cause deliberate damage.

Furthermore, McKinnon has been diagnosed by autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, cousin of the comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen, as suffering from the mental disorder of Asperger’s syndrome. This condition can result in problems with social interaction, and is often characterised by obsessive interests.

Consequently, the extradition decision is widely seen as further misuse of the fast-track extradition treaty with the United States that was signed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

From a social psychology perspective, this case is interesting as it hinges on competing constructions of identity, with McKinnon being on one hand positioned as a ‘terrorist hacker’ carrying out ‘evil’ actions, and on the other as a ‘vulnerable person’ carrying out ‘eccentric’ ones. This illustrates the work carried out by Sacks (1972) in his consideration of the discursive construction of membership categories and their associated bound activities through social interaction.

In a further twist, the British Ministry of Defence has recently released hundreds of previously classified reports of UFO sightings, and announced that it will no longer respond to further notifications from the public.

‘Computer hacker Gary McKinnon to be extradited to US’ from the Guardian

‘The betrayal of Gary McKinnon’ from the Guardian

Gary McKinnon support website

Louis, W. R. (2009). Terrorism, Identity, and Conflict Management

Sacks, H. (1972). On the analyzability of stories by children. In J. J. Gumperz (Ed.), Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication (pp. 325-345).

Remember, remember, the 19th of Movember

In an effort to raise awareness of men’s health issues, men are being encouraged to grow moustaches during the current month of ‘Movember’, coinciding with International Men’s Day on the 19th of the month.

In addition to specifically male medical conditions, this charity event also addresses the issues of men tending both to adopt poor health behaviours, and to avoid seeking medical care, in comparison with women.

From a social constructionist perspective, such activities can be seen as a way of doing ‘being masculine’, since they are ‘known’ to be bound to the ‘male’ gender category.

By dismissing their health care needs, men are constructing gender. When a man brags, ”I haven’t been to a doctor in years”, he is simultaneously describing a health practice and situating himself in a masculine arena. Similarly, men are demonstrating dominant norms of masculinity when they refuse to take sick leave from work, when they insist that they need little sleep, and when they boast that drinking does not impair their driving.

(Courtenay, 2000)

This contrasts with the more traditional psychological view that these behaviours are inevitable since they are driven by some internal factor related to biological sex.

Official ‘Movember’ website

Official International Men’s Day website

Lyon, A. C. (2009). Masculinities, Femininities, Behaviour and Health

Courtenay, W. H. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: a theory of gender and health. Social Science & Medicine, 50(10), 1385-1401

The myth of mental illness?

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the philosopher Foucault’s influential book ‘Madness and Civilization’. In discussing the development of the concept of ‘madness’ as a consequence of the scientific rationality of the Enlightenment, it suggests that ‘mental disorders’ should be viewed as a social construction rather than the medical condition they are typically seen as within contemporary Western society.

Indeed, this is the view proposed by the controversial psychiatrist Szasz, who argues that mental illness is a myth, and that such diagnosis and forcible treatment is predominantly a means of social control. Indeed, compulsory psychiatric hospitalisation has historically been used in this way to oppress dissidents by various regimes across the world.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive in the age of Prozac, ‘mental disorders’ are much less well defined ‘medical conditions’ than they may first appear. The ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association typically lists large number of symptoms for any given condition, and it is only necessary to present a small number of these in order to be diagnosed. Indeed, the difficulty in making such a diagnosis is illustrated by the classic psychological study of those being sane in insane places.

Furthermore, it can be seen that what constitutes a ‘mental disorder’ can vary both over time and culture. Perhaps obviously, drapetomania, the ‘disorder’ that caused black slaves to want to flee captivity, together with the woman specific ‘disorder’ of ‘female hysteria’, are not longer considered to be the problems they once were. Somewhat more surprisingly, however, is the fact that homosexuality was similarly regarded as a ‘mental disorder’ until as recently as the 1970s.

Conversely, ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ (PTSD) was only defined following the Vietnam war, and the new condition of ‘internet addiction’ is a potential candidate for the forthcoming 5th edition of the DSM. The consequences of redefining ‘normality’ in this manner can have a dramatic effect as to how people are categorised. For example, the historical figure Joan of Arc, in claiming to hear voices from God, would nowadays be regarded as suffering from schizophrenia, rather than being considered a divine messenger.

Furthermore, a culture-bound syndrome such as ‘koro’, or ‘genital retraction syndrome’ (GRS), which occurs in parts of Africa and south-east Asia and involves the belief that one’s external genitals are disappearing, may appear strange and somewhat unlikely to those used to Western ‘disorders’.

A more familiar condition such as depression, however, can only be regarded as a ‘disorder’ if happiness and contentment are thought to be ‘normal’. This is only a relatively recent expectation, with Freud himself concluding “that the intention that man should be ‘happy’ is not included in the plan of Creation”.

From a cynical standpoint, it can be seen that pharmaceutical companies clearly have a lot to gain from promoting particular constructions of ‘normality’, as illustrated by the development of ‘puppy Prozac’ to treat the previously unidentified condition of ‘separation anxiety’ occurring in pet dogs.

‘Madness and Civilisation 50th anniversary’ on ABC Radio National

Psychiatry and mental illness

Avdi, E. & Georgaca, E. (2009). Narrative and discursive approaches to the analysis of subjectivity in psychotherapy