Indeed, such diagnoses explicitly seek to identify what is different about the person - what sets them aside, and to some extent, outside, the rest of society. Their framing and use not only identify traits or behaviors that most observers in a given culture would agree on, but categorize a person in a way that can push that person further out of society and culture.
In the original piece I deliberately referred to "certain unhinged or deeply a-moral people." I left this vague for good reason: Mental health diagnoses are to a great extent social constructs.
I'll draw on two brilliant pieces of writing that I hope will make this gin clear. Heeding that top item on my daily to-do list - "Do better" - I'll try to improve on it here.
Even friends who got what I was getting at told me I hadn't really made the case well. What does it mean to say a culture shapes the expression of mental dysfunction? I bungled that question a few days ago in "Batman Movies Don't Kill, But They're Friendly to the Concept," my post about Batman movies and James Holmes.
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