Personhood

Yesterday I had an opportunity to chime in during our mental health discussion during lab. While I was nervous to speak, I knew that my message was important. It is very easy to “other” a person with mental illness by reducing them to a label for the sake of convenience: “The manic ones,” “the bipolar ones,” “paranoid,” “delusional.” A discussion about mental health can easily transform into a cautionary tale about harrowing displays of mental illness symptoms.

We can often strip a person of their personhood with language. I saw this all the time working with the intellectually disabled population. When in public, people tend to see cerebral palsy, autism, and tardive dyskinesia before they see the human being. Similarly, when going down the list of mental illness symptoms it is easy for people to unsee the human being.

Personhood comes before the diagnoses. I’d like to thank The Arc of Washington County for teaching me person-centered support. People with intellectual disabilities are exactly that: people. People with mental illness are people. We should not separate ourselves from our fellow earthlings through labels. This is how we learn the meaning of respect.

If you find yourself afraid, unsettled by the “otherness” of the person in front of you, perhaps there is a lesson in this for you. How do you treat those who are vulnerable? The most vulnerable? An animal perhaps?

Do you think you have been conditioned to separate yourselves from other living beings through the illusion of class, race, sex, ability, or species? Do you believe that “might is right” when it comes to animals? Do you believe that your intellect makes you superior to those who do not have language, such as nonhuman animals?

Maybe I have lost you. Or maybe you see the parallels between the objectification of animals and the objectification of human beings.

We are humbled by the fragility and imperfection of human and nonhuman animals. It is our duty to recognize the miracle of all life.