Is Mental Illness Contagious? - Ethan Watters

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/02/04/Ethan_Watters_The_Globalization_of_the_American_Psyche

Journalist Ethan Watters speculates about the contagiousness of mental illness, citing the hysteria that afflicted thousands of women during the Victorian era. "This is a matter of the unconscious mind, at any moment of time and culture, looking to speak the language of suffering for its moment in time," he says.

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American culture is homogenizing the way the world goes mad. Our exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-documented phenomenon. But neither our golden arches nor our bomb craters represent our most troubling impact on the world: the bulldozing of the human mind itself.

In Crazy Like Us, leading trend-spotter and science writer Ethan Watters shows that we are not only changing the way the world treats and understands mental illness, we are actually changing the symptoms and prevalence of the diseases themselves. - Hillside Club

Ethan Watters is the author of Urban Tribes, an examination of the mores of affluent "never marrieds" and the coauthor of Making Monsters, a groundbreaking indictment of the recovered memory movement. A frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Discover, Men's Journal, Details, Wired, and NPR, he has appeared on such national media as "Good Morning America," "Talk of the Nation," and CNN. His latest book is Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• psychology
• psychotherapy
• mentally
• ill
• sick
• disease
• psychological
• trauma
• psychotic
• therapy
• treatment
• mass
• crowds
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv

[chrisose]

I can't say for sure whether or not mental illness is contagious but I can say with all certainty, in light of the mounting evidence, that stupidity is.

[namename654]

Ok, well if we're both fellow jerks than at least we understand each other. We have a saying from the Netherlands that tolerance is best, even for jerks.

But if you want to turn all philosophical then emigrate to using references to logic. For an example, calling me an "asshole rapist" after saying "no one likes a asshole" is a fallacy. I don't rape assholes, or particularly like assholes. But some people rape assholes, so some people must like assholes.

[x0nrx]

This video is infecting everyone , i did not watch it

[restlys]

@iratetruth we are animal. Or let me ask you, at what point in our evolution did we go from " oh well were not smart enough..." to " Oh geez look !, we just got through the threshold, we are now different" ? Who made that call? Did it happen in other lines of humanoids that got instinct?

Explain why you must kill people who spread the philosophy, Arent you a bit afraid that you might be wrong? Or are you that conceited in believe that you hold the absolute truth?

[restlys]

@iratetruth could you define illogical thinking? Did you ever consider that my will to go towards what I want might be what made the human race survive over all these hundreds of thousands years? What is your definition of mentally ill?

Strange, I define Mental illness as having a few things : A state of change thereof that amounts to a threats to one's well being or the well being of others. A statistical abnormality is harmful to self or others. A change in behavior that is negative, etcetc.

[thesparitan]

LMAO

ha ha

very awesome comment

well said played sir

[thesparitan]

right but you did start it and you do sound like an asshole and it is true people dont like assholes. character assassination, i dont think so.

if i said you were a rapist that would be a assassination.

and fucking moron umm i believe you started to attack me spelling, which is a obvious attack on me. your not doing with the intention of enlightening me. my first response to you was i thought you miss the idea of the video. you started to act like a jerk and i dont care i do it to.

[namename654]

thesparitan - "fucking moron"

thesparitan - "you sound like a asshole. no one likes a asshole."

This assertion blares assassination of character! Oh well, I'm not innocent, I don't want to be innocent, but I also won't be caught doing such assassinations!

[RapistInTheChoir]

"WHALE LETS DO THAT ILLOGICAL THING OR BEHAVIOR CAUSE IT WILL GET US EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT. AND THATS THE EXACT PROBLEM WITH THE PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET. THINK ABOUT IT."

believe me, i'm trying too. be more coherent, please.

you're dead wrong on the 'humans aren't animals' bit, too. at any rate, keep up the good wUrck!

[thesparitan]

assassinate your character. umm, why would i do that. i dont even know you.

can i have the comment please to see if it was me. you say it was someone with the same name as me, right.

[namename654]

Ok dude. I guess I started the fight. Plastering your board with insults was a jerk move, but you (or someone previously logged in as you) did assassinate my character. I was motivated to help out, but you had to get all abusive and controlling. No one likes to be controlled, and pissing people off is not cool.

I'll let you be, and let this be a lesson to both of us that pissing on rights is a bad idea.