APELC Class Notes

Periods 2 and 4, we did much the same as your peers in 1 and 3 yesterday. Check their notes for objectives and details.

Bailey in fourth handed me this opinion by George Will (”The Equity of Inequality”) the other day: “Lack of character often is just that, not a disability”. She astutely connected it to our discussion of identity last week; it’s very easy for us to become wrapped-up in our real and imagined deficiencies debilitaties and focus on them as a structure for our identities often dismissing behavior as a consequence of mere being. Thus do we explain to others, “Well, that’s just the way I am. I can’t help it”. Have a read.

See you Friday, kids.

March 3, 2010 | Filed Under AP Language

Comments

2 Responses to “APELC Class Notes”

  1. Chelsea P. on March 7th, 2010 1:31 pm

    I hope someone in that class has taken AP psychology and read the article so that they could point out to the class that that guy obviously has no clue what he is saying if he is belittling antisocial personality disorder. For all of you who haven’t taken AP psych I found some info for you so you’ll have some idea: Symptoms of antisocial personality disorder includes the inability to care about hurting others, which leads to the statistic that “Psychopaths (people who have antisocial personality disorder) account for 50 percent of all the most serious crimes committed, including half of all serial killers and repeat rapists.” It is not a diagnosis that is given lightly. People who are just “acting like teenagers” usually do not exhibit early behavior like torturing animals and usually do not go on to commit violent crimes. The Mayo Clinic online says that a common symptom is child abuse and other abusive relationships, probably due to the symptoms of lack of remorse, no sense of right or wrong, impulsive behavior and manipulative and intimidating behavior. I agree with the guy that many things are over diagnosed. But I also think he hasn’t researched what he is talking about or else he’s just an idiot if he thinks people like this don’t have a problem and need help.

  2. Mr. Girard on March 21st, 2010 8:49 am

    I don’t know if I’d be so quick to label George Will an idiot; regardless of what one may think of his politics, he’s quite an accomplished and well-respected writer and thinker. And I think it’s important to look more closely at his point, that the medicalization of all behavioral tendencies (at least those that violate the tastes or patience of the general public) as “disorders” is a tempting way to explain away causes and dismiss consequences. The problem isn’t new: Here’s a favorite thinker quoting Hobart Mauer, professor and former president of the American Psychological Association, who wrote in the American Psychologist:

    For several decades we psychologists have looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus and we have acclaimed our freedom from it as epic making. But at length we have discovered to be free in this sense to have the excuse of being sick rather than being sinful is to also court the danger of becoming lost. In becoming amoral, ethically neutral and free we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and identity. And with neurotics themselves, asking, “Who am I? What is my deepest destiny? And what does living really mean?

    If we reduce behavior to biological and chemical malfunctions, what place is there for moral accountability?