Drapetomania

Homelessness, Humanity, Mental Health, Slave Master 3 Minutes

Drapetomania is a serious mental health problem which was first discovered, in 1851 by Dr Samuel Cartwright. Being a doctor Samuel was obviously a man of high moral and ethical standards, concerned with the welfare of all humans, why else would he have chosen the medical profession?

Dr Cartwright was also able to, after careful scientific study of humanity identify diseases and thus help others find cures. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what it is. At the time he discovered this illness Dr Cartwright had involvement with some slaves in the USA, this is a stroke of good luck for all drapetomania suffers, both past and present, and for psychiatry as a whole. I shudder to think what might of happened to the world’s psychiatric health system if it hadn’t been for Dr Cartwright’s contribution.

Mentally ill slaves????

Some of the slaves had started to behave irrationally and out of character. These dangerous, disrespectful behaviours were in fact not due to the slaves’ wilfulness but actually symptoms of a very serious severe mental health disorder. I’m sure you can understand the graveness and somber nature of drapetomania when I tell you that these people were trying to escape slavery due to they’re psychiatric illness.

These men and women were very vulnerable to mental health difficulties they obviously required care and treatment from the appropriate service which of course is psychiatry.

Not Mentally ill but being abused

Unfortunately the psychiatric services of 1851 were not as advanced as they are today and tragically a significant number of patients succumbed to the symptoms of drapetomania and slipped through the net. Even more medically concerning is the fact that some suffers managed to persuade others to listen to drapetomania induced ravings. The amount of international disorder drapetomania caused and is still causing is difficult to underestimate.

I have a lot to owe to Dr Cartwright’s discovery. I’ve been told its incredibly healthy and nothing to be ashamed of to share you suffer from. So, trying but failing not to feel any shame I’ll share. I to suffer from a severe, insidious and apparently treatment resistant strain of drapetomania. There it’s out the true name of the mental illness I suffer  from, I’ve never been diagnosed with the PTSD I say I’ve got. Yes I suffer from other peoples mental illnesses.

Abusers make their victims feel ashamed

Sharing the exact nature of your mental health disorder with the world is getting to be quite trendy especially if you are already famous but I can’t see similarities with problems which drapetomania causes in my life and those these celebrities disclose. This makes me feel more ashamed.

Abuses of power

If I may be so bold I will share with you some of the more prominent ways  drapetomania causes me to suffer. This illness comples me to think some organisations like the police and certain other statutory and 3rd sector organisations not only don’t like me but actually abuse me! I’m sure you can begin to imagine how terrible it is to suffer from Drapetomania. Another damaging effect is my belief that I have rights which conflicts with the actual reality of my life, where if I’m honest clearly shows that I don’t actually even have the ability to have a meaningful say in what happens to me.

Prejudices of the powerful

Many people say Drapetomania is pseudoscience and doesn’t actually exist I 100% disagree with this. Drapetomania does exist and is as real as any other mental health problem the distress caused by drapetomania is clearly evident and painfully real. However the suffers of drapetomania dont actually have the disorder of drapetomania. Drapetomania is about the disordered way of thinking which causes some people to believe that other groups are less capable of rational thinking, understanding. Therefore can only rationally be seen as a source of laborlabour. A new strain of the drapetomania disorder sees people as so incapable they have to be helped in a coercive fashion. People of lower socioeconomic status are purposely disabled. Drapetomanic disordered thinking imposes, sometimes by force, the views and ethics of those in a more socially powerful position on those in less socially powerful positions.

The disordered thinking which is, in my opinion, evidence of drapetomania, is usually found in the cognitive processes of the more materially privileged. That said drapetomania can cause disordered thinking in anyone. Dr Samuel Cartwright displays clear evidence of the type of behaviours caused by drapetomania.

Checking for personal prejudices

For my part I carefully check my thought processes, with prayerful reflection, for any new evidence of drapetomanic thinking I may have.

Effect of Slave Owners Drapetomania

Published by billiethehuman

I'm the author of Billie the Human blog. An accidental activist.I've been homeless up and down the UK, I've seen the best and worst of humanity's behaviours. My website provides a no holes barred view of homelessness. I also share my poetry. Please don't hesitate to contact me at biliethehuman1@gmail.com

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22 thoughts on “Drapetomania”

  1. I was curious if you ever considered changing the
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    But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better.
    Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 images.
    Maybe you could space it out better?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you for your feedback I’m always considering ways to improve the site and make it more user friendly. At the moment I’m looking into a way of linking flash fiction to blog posts.
      I’m currently in the process of broadening my stock of pictures to use on the site. How many pictures do you think is the optimum number for each post? The main point of the blog is the written material but a picture does paint a thousand words.

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  2. Yesterday, while I was at work, my cousin stole my iphone and tested to see if it can survive a 25 foot drop, just so she
    can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now destroyed and she
    has 83 views. I know this is totally off topic but I had to share it
    with someone!

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  3. Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article.
    I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful
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    1. I wrote Drapetomania post as an attempt to reframe and provide an alternative way for people to view mental health problems. Perhaps people suffer from the mental illnesses of others but don’t have a mental illness themselves. The slave analogy is something I’ve used in other blog posts.

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  14. Please excuse my not enabling your comments sooner I will endevour to remove the spam coments to this post ASAP however my internet time in this library is about to run out. Just a simple slave trying to escape to freedom.

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  15. Greetings! I know this is somewhat off topic
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    I’m having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!

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    Liked by 1 person

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