How times have changed.
There is a hospital in my area called Central State Hospital. It is a hospital for people who are ... how shall I put this? ... not quite right in the head. But in 1870 when the hospital opened, it was not called Central State Hospital. It was called the Central Lunatic Asylum. And no one had a problem with that name.
"Hey Joe, what are you doing today?"
"I'm going to visit my father. He's in the lunatic asylum."
"Oh, I didn't know that your dad is insane."
"He's not insane! He's merely a lunatic."
I'd better stop now before I offend more people than I already have. But I do approve of not calling people lunatics. It just doesn't sound like a medical diagnosis. It sounds more like an angry insult.
"You're a lunatic!"
"Oh yeah? Well, you're a crazy person!"
Yes, times have changed. This whole asylum/hospital issue reminds me of the days when people of sub-Saharan ancestry were called Negroes instead of the more modern "melatonin-enhanced humanoids."
Oh, did I say "sub-Saharan?" I meant to say African Transition Zone. "Sub-Saharan" sounds so racist. Don't you think?
1 comment:
Greetings
Good post to remind use of how things used to be -- so glad we are away from it. However, I think we might have more people now in these categories than ever before. But they define the cases with disability names.
I sure like spell check you have built in -- and I use it all the time.
I think many of these types of people are harmless but scary nonetheless.
Thanks for the informative post !!
Best, LL
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