NOTE: Reprinted by permission.
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 13:05:25 +0000
From: Pat Risser <parisser@att.net>
Subject: [CIN] Re-Present vs Represent
To: California InterNetwork of M H Clients
<cinmhc@maelstrom.stjohns.edu>
In our not too distant past, there were separate restroom facilities for
people of color. There were separate drinking fountains. There was
separate housing. Many, perhaps even most, people of color were just
grateful that they had restrooms, drinking fountains and housing, etc. If
a person were to claim to represent people of color in those days, they
would have to say that people of color were fine with the situation and
were grateful to have restrooms, drinking fountains and housing, etc.
Also in our not too distant past, there were separate jobs and separate pay
scales for women. In fact, many women were happy being housewives and
homemakers and many, perhaps even most, women who had jobs were just
grateful that they had a job at all. If a person were to claim to
represent women in those days, they would have to say that women were fine
with the situation and were grateful to have jobs, etc.
In our present, there are public mental health clients who live their lives
differently than most of society. They take drugs which impede their minds
and other bodily functions, they therefore often cannot work and they often
live in sub-standard housing and are under the care of the public mental
health system. Many, perhaps even most, people under the care of the
public mental health system are not only quite content to live this way,
they wish they could have more of this sort of treatment. If a person were
to claim to represent these public mental health clients, they would have
to say that the clients are mostly happy and wish to have more of the sorts
of drugs and other treatments they are getting.
I would contend that in all of the above examples, the correct term would
be that someone speaking on behalf of the groups mentioned is in fact,
re-presenting instead of representing. The difference is crucial.
Re-presenting is a mere act of mimicry. While parroting may be good in
some instances, I feel that it is hardly appropriate when it comes to
seeking civil rights. There are those today who claim to represent public
mental health clients who in fact are re-presenting what they may have
heard.
I believe it is time to stop repeating the brainwashed rhetoric of public
mental clients and it is time to look at the overall situation and stand up
and shout about how wrong it is to let it continue. I don't re-present
public mental health clients, I will represent them to the best of my
ability (as I always have). It is wrong to allow the continued
brainwashing process which trains clients to accept their drugs without
question and to even seek more potentially brain disabling drugs. It is
wrong to not have true informed consent without any hint of coercion. It
is wrong to use force and involuntary procedures without holding the system
accountable for the assaults they commit against us. It is wrong to allow
the barbaric practices of 'shock' to continue to happen. It is wrong to
call these things that they do to us and which robs us of our very soul,
treatment. It is wrong to practice such mumbo-jumbo big-brotherish
doublespeak.
Just as it was wrong to have separate restrooms, separate drinking
fountains, separate housing, and other
"separate but equal treatment," it
is wrong to provide us with
"separate but equal treatment" under parity
legislation which pays for forced and involuntary procedures. Just as it
was wrong to have separate jobs and separate pay scales, and other
"separate but equal treatment,"
it is wrong to socially isolate us from the
rest of society and turn us into zombies with powerful drugs which make us
unable to work and then place us into substandard housing because that's
all we can afford or all society feels we are worth.
It may be that many, perhaps even most, public mental health clients are
content with their lot in life but for those of us who are able, we must
ask ourselves if it is our role to re-present those folks or whether we
will choose to represent for the betterment of all.
Here's Edward Bear coming down stairs now,
thump, thump, thump,
on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the
only way of coming down stairs but, sometimes he feels that there really is
another way; if only he could stop thumping for a moment
and think of it.;
This message brought to you by Pat Risser (parisser@att.net
and ICQ #4207359) who reads Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Comment by Debi Davis.