On Mon, 12 Mar 2001, David Honig wrote: >At 05:51 PM 3/12/01 -0800, Eric Cordian wrote: >>"Medicalizing" your opponent's argument, instead of responding to it, is a >>tactic of police states, religious nuts, controlling relatives, and >>idiots. >> >>Which one are you? >> > >Do you deny that there are clusters of mental symptoms which seem >empirically to have >organic causes? Sure, such symptoms exist. Hell, if you define "Normal" narrowly enough, ninety-nine percent plus of the population has 'em. Including you. Wouldn't you rather allow a pretty broad definition of normalcy rather than start on the thorny issues resulting from allowing *ANY* group of people to start making definitions of normalcy which, sooner or later, may not include you? In fact, a lot of traits that are maladaptive on an individual level (such as paranoia and being fat) are actually beneficial on a larger scale -- a certain number of paranoids will always survive the 'unexpected' (to others) betrayals, and a certain number of fat people will always survive the next famine. Extreme personalities (and physiognomies) are just nature's way of keeping the species alive, by pre-adapting a small percentage of us to survive the hardships and reverses that may challenge the 'normal' population on any given day. Please don't start in with a line that says "it isn't average and therefore it isn't legitimate." Bear