As I scrolled through my Facebook news feed, I discovered the following artwork here, being shared by the page, “Psychologic-Anarchist,” and originally posted it to my own wall, along with commentary…
“Did you know? Before the Civil War, some psychiatrists diagnosed slaves with what they called drapetomania: “a mental illness in which the slave possessed an irrational desire for freedom and a tendency to try to escape.”
My Commentary: Psychiatry is historically-rooted in racism, oppression, pseudo-science, and propping up the power of the State. These quacks once treated the human desire for freedom as a diagnosable disease.
Also, look up “dysaesthesia aethiopica,” then go back even further, and research Benjamin Rush, MD , the “father of American Psychiatry,” to learn about the racist disease he invented, called “negritude.” His ugly mug was featured on the official American Psychiatric Association seal for almost a century!
