The Influence of Fantasy Tropes on The Perception of Recovery From Emotional Trauma As "Healing"

[Umbran]

Fantasy tropes have little to do with it. Here's basically the same rant in relation to US history (warning: some colorful language is possible):

Colorful language form George Carlin! How is that possible?!?

The discussion is also not new. You're bringing it up in 2013. The rant above is from 1990.

Interestingly, I used to agree with Mr. Carlin on this one. Now, I don't fully agree. Unlike "battle fatigue" and "operational exhaustion", PTSD is not softening language. It is actually characterizing the issue more correctly. While the world originally only thought of this in terms of combat veterans, when they changed the language, they started to realize that PTSD was not strictly a disorder arising from combat. It can occur to anyone who has been under sufficient stress or undergone trauma. So, for example, abuse victims are now recognized as having much the same problems, allowing them to get more appropriate treatment than they used to.

So, the words we use to speak of a thing do matter sometimes.

 

[Deset Gled]

Unlike "battle fatigue" and "operational exhaustion", PTSD is not softening language. It is actually characterizing the issue more correctly.

... allowing them to get more appropriate treatment than they used to.

So, the words we use to speak of a thing do matter sometimes.

IMNSHO, the point of the rant isn't to ignore advances in our understanding of the disorder, it's that the name doesn't change the condition. You could say a soldier has "PTSD", but you could just as easily say a rape victim has "shell shock". As long as we realize the similarities in the needs of the patients, the terminology is superfluous.

Put another way, advancing our terminology is not progress. Advancing our treatment is progress. If you have a really bad broken leg, your world is a better place because you had laparoscopic surgery to put titanium pins in place instead of lying in traction for 9 months. Your world is not a better place because you had a transverse type-C femoral fracture instead of a compound break. The line is blurred because we sometimes change the names at the same rate that we change the treatment, but that doesn't change the focus on what is important.

Furthermore, it's easy to look back and say that this terminology change is important and now we are characterizing it properly; "PTSD" is the notable shift because it's when we finally got it right. But if we were having this conversation 40 years ago, we could be looking back and saying that "battle fatigue" was meaningless but now that we're treating "operational exhaustion" we finally got it right. And 40 years from now when the the DSM VII is out people will say that PTSD was a meaningless shift and we finally realize everyone has OMGWTFBBQ.

 

[Umbran]

IMNSHO, the point of the rant isn't to ignore advances in our understanding of the disorder, it's that the name doesn't change the condition. You could say a soldier has "PTSD", but you could just as easily say a rape victim has "shell shock". As long as we realize the similarities in the needs of the patients, the terminology is superfluous.

And my point is that the terminology influences how we see (or don't see) similarities in the needs of the patients. How we think is channeled and influenced by the words we use!

If that were not the case, Carlin's point would not apply.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Put another way, advancing our terminology is not progress.

It is when it improves the diagnostic process...which "PTSD" did.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Put another way, advancing our terminology is not progress.

As a bitter old man with a career in communications, I assert changing terminology usually makes clear communication difficult and that is actually the point, to hide progress (or lack of) towards goals. It is employed the create politically useful illusions, rather than a material change. Misusing terms like "healing" until it no longer has any emotional value is what people do.