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Fiction Changing the Ratios of "Mental Illness"

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backpack Since: Jan, 2011
#1: Mar 31st 2016 at 9:56:15 AM

This is something I've been curious about for a while. Both has this ever been done (I'd love to read it), and if it was done could it be done well?

I've been in the camp for some time that most "mental illness" is just the expression of a set of genes that wasn't wiped out by natural selection, but was made a minority. I kind of adopted this view in college when I was shown a documentary on a schizophrenic community in Japan, who all live and work together, and are extremely functional because the entire community is set up to deal with schizophrenia (everyone present knows precisely what to do if someone has a psychotic episode, because it's a regular part of life).

This has always made me wonder: what if natural selection fell a little bit differently, and people we think of as "mentally ill" were the normal, and people we think of a "normal" were the minority and viewed as unusual (I'm autistic, so obviously I often apply this to myself).

Except, I'm not sure how this could easily be portrayed in fiction, because it seems difficult to divorce the "mental illness" from the culture. For example, most autistic people are socially awkward and nervous in social situations. However, an autistic person who was raised among other autistic people would likely feel far more confident. But how much more? And how would social expectations be different?

We've seen every other reversal I can think of in fiction (racial power hierarchies, gender roles, sexual orientation), but I can't think of any fiction that dealt with this issue. Has it ever been done? And if so, how well did it work?

nombretomado (Season 1) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#2: Mar 31st 2016 at 3:47:52 PM

Moved this to On-Topic Conversations.

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#3: Mar 31st 2016 at 5:13:01 PM

The closest I can think of was a sci-fi book, I think in Anne Mc Caffrey's Brain/Brawn series, where the rulers of a particular planet all had some hardcore OCD, because something had gone wrong with the gene mods of the original settlers, leading to something being bound closely to the genetic markers for OCD.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#4: Apr 2nd 2016 at 11:30:49 AM

The Speaker For The Dead trilogy also had a planet where the leaders were genetically engineered to have OCD.

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Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#5: Apr 3rd 2016 at 7:18:08 PM

The definition of mental illness isn't necessarily just "different" but also "debilitating". A civilization of sociopaths, for example, would likely fall apart pretty quickly.

To use a physical example: an all-deaf society would probably work, but nonetheless would find itself at a disadvantage-devices like the radio wouldn't have been invented, and neither would music. While it's certainly possible for a deaf person to thrive and succeed, they generally do so despite their condition rather than because of it.

There's a debate over Autism is technically a mental illness or not based on this. Speaking as an Aspie myself, I'm on the fence.

Leviticus 19:34
war877 Grr... <3 from Untamed Wilds Since: Dec, 2015 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
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#6: Apr 3rd 2016 at 7:31:50 PM

As a general rule, all illnesses are only illnesses by comparison to something. A world with impossibly short lifespan, a people without arms, these groups might appear disabled to us. Similarly, we could be seen as disabled to an alien race that had great advantages over us. ASD is one of the more interesting examples, as a world with ASD being the norm might have a higher scientific progress rate than our own.

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#7: Apr 3rd 2016 at 10:13:14 PM

Looking at the title I'm not even sure what the OP had in mind. Like, fiction can't actually change the ratios of the mentally ill versus those who aren't. Like, that is literally impossible. And given that mental illnesses have a lot of factors, genetic engineering is kind of unlikely to really do that in the future. (PTSD related orders and brain damage are things that occur independently of genetic conditions, though these things can contribute to a particular problem.)

Illness is also defined as that which can negatively affect your health, your quality of life. Autism may be on the fence regarding the definition, but something like OCD has been recorded as severely impinging on one's ability to do daily tasks. And schizophrenia and other disorders also quite negatively affect your ability to function normally. In a situation where such things are expected regularly I don't see how they'd be any kind of advantage, but rather something to taken care of in some way, whether by highly expensive health care communities or it being expected of the government to provide care specifically for that problem.

edited 3rd Apr '16 10:16:07 PM by AceofSpades

Ekuran Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
#8: Apr 3rd 2016 at 10:19:21 PM

Pretty sure they meant works of fiction that have different ratios of mental illness inside their fictional worlds compared to real life, not literally "Fiction Changing the Ratios of "Mental Illness"".

edited 3rd Apr '16 10:20:31 PM by Ekuran

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