The explanation we need with how ableist and saneist language is ingrained within us, but the conversation we have to address in both Autistic and ND communities
TW & CW // ableism, saneism, mentions of saneist and/or ableist slurs, mentions of self-help and self-love, religion mention, eugenics, ABA “therapy”, hate crimes, neurotypical mental health/New Age language still used in the lexicon of mental health, suicide mention, sanctioning of systemic ableism and saneism, Christianity/religion mention, psychiatry mention, police brutality against Disabled people, etc…
A/N: Hello everyone! For this month’s topic, I’d like to focus on the explanation behind our subconscious usage of saneist and ableist language while not realising it at the same time, including the conversation that we, as a community, need to have with each other, mainstream society, and with our own trusted ones (or ourselves if you wish or are feeling comfortable with doing so)!
Also, please don’t think that it’s ever your fault, okay? /reassuring
Things like this can happen as a result of society continuing to normalise both saneism and ableism in actions and in language, along with how they’re ingrained into us from generation to generation, and from time era to time era in the systems we live in.
So today, I’m going to talk about this in the way I know how to… with relatability and with some honesty in there.
Let’s get started.
The little known form of both discrimination and bigotry aside from ableism that has existed for centuries
Autism and plenty of other natural neurotypes of neurodivergency have dealt with plenty of stigma (social, societal, systemic, etc.) for centuries…
Regardless of the 21st century’s high morals, purity culture that still exists today in many circles (not just in conservative, liberal, centrist, and every other social circle on the political spectrum), self-help and self-love communities and their inherent connection with hustle/grind cultures while contributing to ableism, bigotry and discrimination (ranging from ABA torture to hate crimes, to eugenics, to neurotypical and able-minded gaslighting towards Autistic/ND/Plural folks [then them complaining about why we have a “reduced” sense of ourselves], to “behavioural” intervention plans, to cisgender and/or neurotypical normalisation plans and to being antagonised and made out to be the “bad guy”), bigotry towards Neurodivergency, Plurality, and to Autism remains a constant living hell for Neurodivergent, Plural, and Autistic folks dealing with society’s nonsense, especially when society experiences horrific events in the world and puts the blame onto Neurodivergent, Plural, and Autistic individuals, including individuals with mental health concerns instead of understanding that there are many factors involved in those events, and that those factors NEVER included some of the most vulnerable marginalised communities that were wrongly blamed for existing under a society that still hates them to this day (and continue to be to this day).
To define the very concept of saneism… it is a form of oppression and bigotry that relates to a neurological trait or variance a person has, or is judged by the greater society on a mezzo (community), micro (individual), or macro (the greater/wider society) level. It is also a genuine form of hatred that specifically harms those who have been continually marginalised within NT and able-minded society and continuing to fuel their sense of justifiable distrust, frustration, and pure rage from those detrimentally impacted by it.
“Saneism” was coined by Morton Birnhaum in the 1960s (During Present), but the term was revived when judicial and legislative processes were made prominent since both processes are steeped in saneism, and it was written extensively in the 1980s by law professor and mental health advocate Michael L. Perlin, who has contributed to further written records about the term itself.
Saneism itself continues to remain alive in both the minds and souls of people around the world (community/culture wise) and is embodied in acts of bigotry towards Neurodivergent and Autistic individuals everyday. It’s not always clear or obvious, even to both saneists and ableists themselves.
A/N: To differentiate, mentalism also has the same definition as saneism, but is another term that also refers to the same concept.
Saneist behaviours are typically not sanctioned nor deemed as “acceptable” by federal companies, agencies, and/or in non-profit organisations, but they still exist in places (even in places behind closed mouths and doors).
Procknow’s (2017) academic journal entry on sanism explains how the medical model of disability indemnifies the so-called “normalcy” of citizens who are “sane” as contrasted with Neurodivergent, Plural, Autistic, and Mentally ill citizens who are demonised for not fitting into the standards of “sane-ness”, but I will rephrase Procknow’s (2017) words.
Medical standards, such as the worldwide Medical Model of Disability only guarantees the “safety” of the predominantly “sane” majority of citizens, whereas the “Neurodivergent” citizens are shoved into asylums where psychiatry restores “us” (or “them” from the perspective of the “sane” neurotypical and able-bodied/minded singlet) into a socially constructed state of “normalcy”, because the Social Model of Disability is the opposite of the Medical Model. The Social Model of Disability pertains to ascribing (or pinning) the blame to the social, cultural and economic environments Neurodivergent and “mad” people find themselves in. Those environments become limiting when matching with the current neurological template of what “normality” is, since the Social Paradigm of Disability is only created for physically Disabled individuals in mind (Procknow, 2017).
A/N: “indemnifies” is another word for “guarantees”
Saneism also contributes to a societal and social (etc.) perception and practice of “othering” people who aren’t “sane” and who are “mentally ill” as “abnormal/inferior” towards those who are “mentally unwell” in their eyes. It’s also regarded as an “irrational” form of hatred with similar qualities and traits of other genuine forms of hatred that also contribute prevailing social attitudes of racism, ageism, intersexism, cissexism, heterosexism, queermisia, and xenomisic bigotry because saneism is resonate with ableism in the sense that they’re both invisible and outwardly pervasive everywhere (even in our Neurodivergent and Autistic communities because both forms of oppression are ingrained in us more because of neurotypical socialisation).
The roots of saneism are recorded from the time of humanity’s beginning and continues throughout the present day. Back then, mental illness has been inextricably linked to the Christian concept of “sin”, “evil”, a “punishment” from G-d or another higher power, crime, and “demons” [oh yes, “evil” spirits were usually relied on to explain “atypical” behaviour] (Perlin, 1993). Neurodivergent people and individuals who were considered as “mad” (at the time) were perceived as “beasts”, since people who’ve lost a socially constructed “capacity” of reasoning were deemed to have lost their “claim” to be treated as a decent human being.
It continues to persist throughout history, the current reality and timeline and also through abled and neurotypical society’s tolerance of it. Both dignified and ‘empowered’ citizens embody saneism explicitly (in a “mask-off” sense) without being called out, scorned, reprimanded, and, to use the current terminology of Generation Z (or Gen Z), “cancelled” in public. It’s troubling in this way because saneism is practiced subconsciously and recurrently by people who assume progressive positions (i.e., North American liberals in power, some of the New Age movement with its self-help/empowerment and self-love movements predominantly comprised of able-minded and neurotypical people, corrupt people in power, including politicians representing our home provinces or states).
A/N: Even I like very few or some parts of both submovements, which is proof of my inconsistent contradictions/hypocrisy as a social mammalian being {a human}, but at least it’s better to have a good amount of skepticism towards both
Current mental health and public grey literature continue to promote the concept of “harm reduction” to prevent the pondering of budding and blossoming mental health workers of considering and reflecting on the systemic and structural oppressions of “mentally ill” and Neurodivergent/Autistic/Plural folks while maintaining the status quo of psychologically and physically “othering” them in psychiatric wards.
Neurodivergent, Plural, Autistic, and even mentally ill folks that don’t pass as the “good” kind of people perceived as “reasonably sane” are given less autonomy/agency, dignity and respect as they navigate psychiatric care.
The often disproven and contradictory concept of “good ones” is a smaller, but less understood and talked about reality pertaining to the dark side of mental health as it can typically occur in psychiatric settings, because the “good ones” are the ones that are “complicit” in fear of not being sent home and being punished, while also not winning because they’re harming themselves and the so-called “bad ones” in the end because that plays part into being complicit in societal ableism and saneism, more friendly, and “normal”, while the ones who are defiant, too loud or unruly, and too much are perceived as the “crazy” ones.
Here is a long video on the topics of Saneism, Madness, and Social justice if you are further interested in versing yourself with any additional information:
As long as ND/Autistic, Plural, and “mentally ill” individuals are segregated into “good” and “bad”, then we repeat history and its oppressive systems over and over again. Internalised stigma compels a person in “performing” or masking to fit society’s standards of “sanity”, which is the exact same stigma that leads to neglect, assault, gaslighting, minimising, and abuse in psychiatric, medical, therapeutic and mental health (even in non-profit organisations) settings while continuing to further marginalise ND, Autistic, Plural, and/or substance users (including those dealing with self-harm for their reasons to cope) even further, and a person’s participation in this hierarchy can have very real consequences. An individual can also benefit from the saneist assumption that they’re “exceptional” (A/N: hell, me too, since that assumption’s already screwed me up, and I can put that as another thing to continue to forgive and unlearning by talking to my safe people [i.e., my loved ones (i.e., my romantic partner) and friends I trust both online and in real life,] and by journaling whenever I have the lifeforce/spoons to do so) because they can present in a narrow way that society holds up an ideal expecting psychiatrically Disabled, Plural, ND/Autistic folks to conceal their true selves as a form of both protection and masking from the able-minded, singlet and neurotypical “norms”, because society only wants ND, Plural, Autistic and ‘mentally ill’ people to not only be passive (or invisible in alternative terms), but only remain ‘invisible’ for the comfort of neurotypical, singlet and able-minded people and for psychiatrists, mental health professionals, NT, singlet, able-bodied and able-minded New Agers, clinicians and for healthcare practitioners.
Considering the usage of mental health-based language while keeping it in mind as we converse with others in our day to day language
When unpacking conversations pertaining to discussions of mental illness, there’s also caution towards quotation marks that disappear when read aloud (i.e., ‘individuals with “borderline personality disorder”’), which also is relevant with words from neurotypical-based mental health or social equity lexicon (i.e., “toxic”, “problematic”, “healthy/unhealthy”, “work on”, etc. [in which not only ND, Autistic, and Plural folks have internalised this, and hell, I, myself, am guilty for using some of the words there when I was a youngling who didn’t know any better]) that can be uncritically swallowed up by many progressive individuals (and hell, not every person likes those words either, but I don’t speak for everyone because I’m speaking about those words from my internal kneejerk reaction/discomfort to those words) and especially social equity, mental health, and leftist circles that are also rampant with saneism and ableism. They can sometimes become overused to the point where it’s frustrating, aggravating, chaining, and also where it feels constricting to even disagree with people who understandably, but uncritically (or in some cases, justifiably) like those terms for themselves, not for society. But another thing, we also uncritically use them in our day-to-day language because us humans are contradictory and inconsistent when it comes to saneist language like this:
“Being needy and wanting external reassurance? That’s completely problematic of you to even want external reassurance for your own healing and survival! Try to work on your own self-reassurance while you’re at it!” (can send a message that one must “bottle up” their insecurities and feelings, including to always be “self-reliant” and/or “strong” [that depends on the person and whether or not they are naturally self-reliant] and that is on detrimental positivity and the enforcement of optimist attitudes onto people who aren’t naturally optimistic)
“You hate yourself and aren’t at your best self the way I/society want(s) you to? work on loving yourself! That’s negative energy and completely unhealthy to not love yourself before loving someone else…” (can send a message that one must be socially “acceptable”, fully “healed”, or to translate to neurotypical mental health terminology, “healthy” before forming connections with others)
“You being obsessed with your partner is literally unhealthy and so is your partner obsessing over you, like can the both of you not be so crazy and find something healthy to do for once that doesn’t involve your relationship with them and that involves having normal interests outside your shared love for each other!” (can also reinforce society’s expectations of what “relationships” are supposed to “look like” from a neurotypical perspective instead of an intersectional one)
“Why are you so crazy? Are you against self-empowerment, self-growth and self-love that is socially acceptable/healthy to be in this society? If you are, then stay away from me you toxic freak!” (can demonise people who understandably can have kneejerk reactions or an understandable sense of discomfort or mistrust towards people who can use those concepts to patronise people for a supposed “lack” of their own comprehension of those concepts instead of understanding that there are a lot of global factors that contribute to the suffering of Neurodivergent, Chronically Ill, Plural Systems, Disabled and/or Autistic individuals of all intersectionalities while society expects them to fit into the neurotypical standard)
“That empowered person is literally insane for her crazy workout and self-care/love routine, and honestly, I wish that everyone followed her so that they can become their best selves too!” (can send another societal expectation to be “empowered” [isn’t always as good as actual liberation, but it can be genuinely good in some cases], to “love” themselves or else there’s something “wrong” with them, to have a productive self maintenance (another alternative to “self-care”) “routine”, which is another way to tie a person’s worth or existence to productivity)
A/N: I’m also contradictory and hypocritical when I use words like “toxic”, including internalising the words “work on”, and “healthy/unhealthy” each time I read posts and internet comments talking about anything that utilises language like this (from mental health to anything else, like fandoms or like eating habits, or any coping tethers that people are currently using right now, no matter if they have external resources that personally benefit them to feel safe and anchored), so I’m no better than anyone else nor am I some “saint”-like “role model”. Honestly, if anyone wants to use words like this for themselves, I am happy for you, and you’re good in my book, as long as you are a decent human being, you’re fine in my book.
There’s also the majority of neurotypical and able-minded populations that tap on the “mad” vocabulary (i.e., “that was crazy!”, or “how insane are you?!”) without reflecting on the pathologising connotations from those words. Another example of normalised saneism in our everyday language is linking mass violence and traumatic events to ND, Autistic, and “mentally ill” folks in an autonomous way, which is parallel with the Islamomisia that both columnists and advocacy groups are quick to condemn.
If there is a fact to say, it would be this one.
People who have a hard time being “compliant”, “friendly”, and “relatable” (in the eyes of the “sane” in power as an ideal for them to fit into) are typically perceived as “difficult”, and this doesn’t just affect white/Eurocentric singlet individuals who are “mentally ill”, Neurodivergent, and/or Autistic, but it can also affect Plural Systems with Headmates/Alters of Colour, ND/Autistic Plural Systems with ND/Autistic headmates/alters, Black and/or Indigenous Plural Systems with Black/Indigenous headmates/alters, Plural Systems with headmates/alters who are women, including LGBTQIAP2S+/MOGAI Plural Systems with LGBTQIAP2S+/MOGAI headmates/alters and/or mentally ill Plural Systems with headmates/alters with mental health conditions since they are given zero respect and no autonomy/agency while navigating psychiatric care, since respectability politics, tone-policing and action-policing are a real thing, and ND, Plural, Autistic and ‘mentally ill’ folks aren’t immune to them, nor are they immune to also resorting to tone and action-policing either (saying this as a person and man who is also guilty of it at times). Clinicians and health professionals that disproportionately diagnose them with largely goes unnoticed due to the ableism and cultural insensitivity (in some cases of ND/Autistic, ‘mentally ill’, and/or Plural Systems who are BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour]) of professionals.
When we discuss who looks “mentally ill”, who presents as or is expected to be “functional”, who is “trustworthy” and who’s “not”, all of this language is placed in this way that it plays into existing stereotypes around class, ethnic backgrounds, gender (modalities, diverse/modal genders, etc.), neurotypes, and more. For example, women, even some trans, non-binary, and gender-modal/non-conforming individuals are perceived as “difficult” and end up being misdiagnosed as “borderline histrionic”, and all of this exclusive form of language is one reason why people in poverty and Individuals of Colour disproportionately wind up in systemic prisons while white individuals with class privilege wind up in hospitals (and that is on white privilege).
A/N: Hell, as a white and Autistic hearing, oral, and abled singlet, I have white privilege myself, and I’ll say it because no seemingly sanctimonious (making a show of having higher morals than others) or “self-righteous”/”holier-than-thou” white person on Twitter or anywhere else on social media and in real life won’t admit theirs while saying the opposite in the same breath, but to be frank, I am no better than anyone else when it comes to that as well.
Who gets to be “good” and “relatable” (and who is deemed as “bad” or “unrelatable”) along with who gets to be labelled as “difficult”, “crazy”, or “awful” becomes apparent when a person takes a look and puts it into perspective at who holds the most privilege in society, because mental illness can and is typically weaponised against the most marginalised and vulnerable among us and undeniably impacts the kind of care that is received to them. If a person is a white, non-intersex, allocishet, neurotypical, abled (minded and physically), Christian, singlet, hearing and oral English-speaking man, then he is given the benefit of all intersections of privilege which people are conditioned to believe in his “supposed” inherent “goodness”, “empathy”, “safety”, and “intelligence”.
Much of mental health care has to do with quick assessments and judgement calls, but who gets the benefit of the doubt, and how people are ultimately categorised, diagnosed, and cared for can be deeply impacted by existing bigotry. A 2011 article by Arkowitz and Lilienfeld (2011) discussed the fact that substance abuse is a likely predictor of so-called ‘violent’ behaviour, which points to long-overdue action on placing vital importance on accessible mental health treatment and care, rather than to socially and/or financially invest in policing and incarceration, yet Disabled individuals are disproportionately policed and incarcerated. Another article, titled Mass Incarceration of People with Disabilities by Vallas (2016) also discusses how the U.S. traded mass institutionalism for mass incarceration when a widespread closure of state-run psychiatric hospitals in the second half of the 20th century wasn’t accompanied by an investment in community-based alternatives since no one wants to reflect or even care enough to actually want to invest in community-based care for Disabled (etc.) individuals.
Calling bigots and fascists “insane” further stigmatises people with mental health concerns and buys into the myth that having a mental health concern makes a person to be “dangerous”, “violent”, or “criminal”, in which this myth is usually proven to be false because people with mental health concerns are more likely to be both survivors and victims of hate crimes and violence than able-minded people without mental health conditions. Disabled individuals are disproportionately put through brutality, violence and torture by police, since one study estimated that 33–50% of those killed by police are Disabled individuals and their horrific experiences typically include being illegally and immorally deprived of medical care while being subjected to mistreatment by prison staff.
Bigotry isn’t the result of people, but of a larger global system of discrimination cultures that continues to ingrain its mark on people living within those cultures while making them complicit (referring to conformity) to external systems that end up continuing cycles of discrimination (systemic, social, medical, etc.) while society itself preaches that everything will get better (only on the outside it seems like it’s getting better, but not behind closed doors). However, it will get much worse… much much worse because there are some gaps in society that will still remain the same, and that there is some etymology that still continues to exist as long as both ableism and saneism exist, and as long as many forms of genuine societal hatred exist in this current timeline, then we won’t ever be truly free.
Bigotry can only be eradicated by actively fighting and overthrowing larger systems, not solely blaming and pointing accusing fingers on individuals who only play a small part of widespread bigotry, since describing bigotry as a mental illness keeps the focus on people with privileges that intersect with each other, rather than marginalised communities that suffer a lot under the disabling consequences from bigotry, and the most messed up side effects of labelling bigots as “psychotic”, “crazy”, or “insane” is the moment or time in which stating so gives an often disproven impression that people function under the influence of an invisible illness that can’t be “controlled”.
Keeping in mind about the sanist lexicon we internalise and how we can have conversations to ensure that we don’t harm ourselves and others while staying at an emotionally safe place
The void of saneism and the current “mental illness” lexicon continues to imply that the oppression ND/Autistic people are facing is commonplace that it doesn’t have its own label (which it actually does, but it’s not widely talked about in the mainstream media and especially in social equity and justice circles that should have more conversations instead of putting more than too much emphasis on the self because there’s more than enough concerns in this world that are harming and killing people), and attributing mass violence to ND, Autistic and mentally ill folks in an autonomous way is saneist since that falsely implies that they are the ones at “fault” for things that are out of their scope of management, which is parallel with Islamomisia and how some columnists and advocacy groups (as said earlier, and am now re-stating).
Advocates of inclusive and conscientious language usage have petitioned and/or campaigned to raise social/societal awareness of using saneism in or communications while offering alternative words to use (i.e., ballistic), and/or temporary solutions, such as using ‘person-first’ language as ways to write about suicide. Those similar suggested guidelines typically recommended that people avoid words such as “narcissist”, “psycho”, the “r” slur, “crazy”, and more. We, as social living beings, throw around words in an insulting, demonising, and/or mocking manner such as “junkie”, “idiot”, “crackhead”, “sociopath”, “wino”, etc. without any discussion involving a sense of self-reflection, until policy makers accept that substance usage should be a medical and mental health concern than a legal one, those saneist terms are going to be difficult to eliminate.
The language of mental health conditions should never be used to dismiss people as being “unworthy” of being “taken” seriously, but that is what happens when any form of bigotry is labelled as a ‘mental illness’ and perpetrators of bigotry are seen as “crazy” or as “insane”, and calling bigots as ‘insane’ continues the myth that all forms of bigotry is an “abnormal” or a historical artifact. But, this turns out to be a lie keeping people under its reign from coming to terms with the painful, but indifferent truth that many forms of bigotry are a “foundational” element of Eurocentric cultures.
A lack of decentering one’s own self from privileged people in global conversations about many forms of bigotry silences the long and dark history of marginalised people being diagnosed with mental health conditions in detrimental ways, which has continued to prove that the intersections of mental health, one’s internal sense of their gender(s), ethnic background (etc.), disability, neurotype, whether a person is a singlet or a Plural System, sexuality(ies), and hearing status are deeply rooted and labelling discriminatory individuals as an ableist or a saneist slur can blur those intersections.
Conclusion
To end this off on a final note, it’s better to keep in mind about how we internalise ableist and saneist language from privileged, singlet, able-bodied/minded and neurotypical environments we are surrounded in along with the people we surround ourselves with (yes this is me using some New Age concepts to discredit the harm that sometimes happens, which is proof of my contradictory, hypocritical and ironic nature as a human being). Even though we might subconsciously absorb what’s posted online and on physical paper (along with what is said by others in real life and on the internet), it takes years to put in a conscious effort to unlearn ableist and saneist words from current mental health and social equity terminology because there are times where we can slip up out of moments of anger or when experiencing a bad day, but at the end of the day, it’s a human decency thing to replace ableist and saneist words with safer alternatives (i.e., ballistic, naive, foolish, mutualist (when talking about beneficial and safe relationships, and plus, this concept based on biology/nature is a good one to use for describing beneficial and safe relationships), etc.) when talking about someone unpleasant or the societal (and many more) factors that harm and exclude many Disabled individuals, Plural Systems, Chronically Ill individuals, mentally ill individuals, including ND/Autistic individuals, because the actual fight to an anarchist revolution and to actual liberation won’t happen and begin without us and without many Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, LGBTQ+/MOGAI and religious individuals of all intersectionalities that have done so much for society to get to where we all are today.
A/N: It’s been a long ride, but I’m glad that you’ve made it here, because you, dear reader(s), are a beacon of light to this otherwise wasted wonderland of a world, and without y’all, this world would already be more of a twisted place where no one would ever feel safe and liberated, and where no one would feel free to accept themself and to be themself, without society being contradictory about it.
With Kindness and Solidarity,
A ravenet gremlin person and man.
References cited:
Angelone, R. (2015, August 12th). Sanism — The Little Known Prejudice. autism citizen — because everyone with autism is a citizen. https://autismcitizen.org/sanism-the-little-known-prejudice/
(n.a.). (n.d.). Anti-Oppression: Anti-Sanism. College of Coastal Georgia Library. https://libguides.ccga.edu/antioppression/sanism
Cheung, I. (2015, May 16). Sanism and the language of mental illness. Iva Cheung. https://ivacheung.com/2015/05/sanism-and-the-language-of-mental-illness/
Finch, S.D. (2017, March 27). Why I’m Done Being A ‘Good’ Mentally Ill Person. The Establishment. https://theestablishment.co/why-im-done-being-a-good-mentally-ill-person-aa1124fa4215/
Kapitan, A. (2017, August 22). Why it’s incredibly problematic to call white supremacists “insane”. Radical Copy Editor. https://radicalcopyeditor.com/2017/08/22/stop-calling-white-supremacists-insane/#more-931
LeFrancois, B. (2014, October 22). Madness, Sanism, and Social Justice [Video file]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFNnPosrxeQ
Perlin, M.L. (1993). On Sanism. SMU Law Review, Dedman School of Law, Vol. 46: (2)4, pp. 373–407. https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2269&context=smulr (oh yeah, heads-up, some of the information there can be outdated in terms of certain terms used to refer to Indigenous folks, Jewish folks, etc., including stereotypes to try to provide examples of how stereotypes affect others because it isn’t recent, but from 1993 DP, so please do the best you can to keep in mind about it)
Procknow, G. (2017). Silence or Sanism: A Review of the Dearth of Discussions on Mental Illness in Adult Education. New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, Vol. 29 (2), pp. 4–24. https://sci-hub.se/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/nha3.20175
