Love this passage! "And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us."
In front of the most profound and touching truths the only thing one can do is to remain silent… thank you for the wonderful piece though, it hit some chord deep down 🙏🥹 And yes “those who understand us enslave something in us”…
“And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.”
Oh yes! I long to live in that state continuously.
Loneliness does offer a lot of safety. I've never been really understood and my biggest fear is that someone, someday will and I'll realize alot of things about myself I don't want to notice.
I know the meaning of this verse very well....having met thee.madman in my dreams and on the streets not of San Francisco, but Lafayette, CA. Mel C. Thompson poet laureate.
The way I interpret “safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us” is through a Mad Pride and anti-psychiatry lens.
Those who have been granted the power in a society to determine who and what gets labeled as “mentally ill,” like the psychiatrists and their Bible, the DSM, are the ones who claim the power to understand what madness is and to label others as mad. But they do so in service to the system that grants them that power in the first place.
Such labels as autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, BPD, etc. are just constructs that serve maintaining the power of the status quo. They are used to other us and disempower us and strip us of our agency and freedom, to institutionalize or incercerate those of us who cannot be forced to conform, to wear the masks, to appear “cured.”
So they claim they are the ones who understand us, and in doing so, we are enslaved within their system.
Oof, there was so much to unpack in that while being verbally blasted by a firehose of misdirected anger, disinformation, and straw man arguments. I'd never heard of Amy Lutz or terms like "intact mind" or "facilitated communication" until reading this.
It would take me a lot of mental energy to go through each paragraph and fully share where I think a concept is being misrepresented or where I think Lutz is just tragically misguided, and mental energy is not something I have an abundance of right now.
Fwiw, I'm not just a late-recognized autistic self-advocate, I'm also a mom of two autistic adults, one who was formally diagnosed at age 3 back in the days when autism was seen as a tragic diagnosis and misinformation was rampant about a link to vaccines. There's a lot that I will not say about what it was like for our family in those days because it would require talking about my kids' personal lives and that's simply not my story to tell. I have, at times, disclosed some aspects of it with their permission and ability to read what I've written prior to sharing, and maybe one day we will tell our family's story together and write a book, but we've all got much larger pressing issues weighing on our lives right now.
I do agree with one thing Lutz said, that there is a "politically-motivated decline in services and programs specifically for the autistic," but she seems to be pointing the finger in the wrong direction.
When I ran for state legislature, one of the forums I attended as a candidate was held by a non-profit organization for individuals with intellectually and developmentally disabled adult children and their families. It was one of the more stressful experiences I had on the campaign trail, because the things parents will say about and right in front of their kids, who often fully understand what is being said about them, was heartbreaking. One mother said she only hoped her child died before she did, because she couldn't imagine her kid going on without her. Which is just tragic all around, that she is so unsupported that she feels that way, and that she would say such a thing in front of her kid, who quite likely understood her.
I will disclose one thing that touches on our experience. One of my kids, as an adult, told me that they understood everything their doctors and I spoke about when they were a kid and we thought they weren't listening or couldn't understand. That is something painful I have to live with. I feel a tremendous amount of anger towards the Psychiatric community that I naively trusted to know better than I did. The harm they have inflicted on our entire family can never be forgiven.
That is why the autistic self-advocacy movement exists and why we say "nothing about us without us." Because even well-meaning parents, like the one I was, can inflict trauma on our loved ones. That cycle of well-meaning harm must be broken.
I did run across this statement linked below that I agree with regarding Lutz and her camp, so I will leave you with that for now.
Here's a personal example to illustrate how this can play out. I was diagnosed in my early 20s as having Bipolar Disorder, a diagnosis made up by the psychiatrists granted power by the State to make up medical diagnoses for various ways distress manifests in society when you struggle be the appropriate level of obedient producer and consumer the State requires. When I made the mistake of turning to these professionals for help, they made their diagnosis official by giving me a checklist with questions like "Have you ever shoplifted?" and "Do you get into heated arguments with others?" and "Do you often experience financial difficulties?" As a young mother in an abusive relationship living in poverty, the way I answered the questions qualified me to be diagnosed as a Bipolar person. Now that I was officially labeled by these esteemed professionals as a person with a heavily stigmatized mental illness, that could be weaponized against me, both by my abuser and by the State. I could be hospitalized and medicated with sedating drugs against my will, and when my abuser wanted to flex his power over me when I was being too difficult to control, he could call the State's thugs, aka police, and tell them I was crazy, diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and they easily believed him over me, the sobbing, disheveled, and heavily sedated woman, because he was not sobbing, disheveled, or heavily sedated, and they took me to solitary confinement, because I was a suicide risk, of course. I was released the following day because my abuser didn't show up to court. He didn't need to. He'd taught me the lesson he wanted me to learn. Don't you dare try to defend yourself again. Do as I say. Just as the State and their thugs do.
I don't feel understood by them either, but they are the ones who have been granted the authority to be the gatekeepers of understanding, which is how we are enslaved by them. They have stolen our power to be believed when we say we understand ourselves better than they do. It's very toxic.
Love this passage! "And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us."
You are safe!
say it a quadribillion billion million times if necessary
be the beauty that you are
Interesting, it seems that the sun is like the truth, and Kahlil Gibran comes to love the truth when he cannot hide behind masks.
It seems that he believes his love for the truth makes him a madman, perhaps because most people don’t care about it?
I love your interpretation of the message ❤️ Didn't think of the sun as being the truth but it makes so much sense
In front of the most profound and touching truths the only thing one can do is to remain silent… thank you for the wonderful piece though, it hit some chord deep down 🙏🥹 And yes “those who understand us enslave something in us”…
That was my favorite line...
Lose the mask, be free, be mad.
“And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.”
Oh yes! I long to live in that state continuously.
Loneliness does offer a lot of safety. I've never been really understood and my biggest fear is that someone, someday will and I'll realize alot of things about myself I don't want to notice.
Great post.
Stealing masks shouldn’t be a crime imo.
“...Those who understand us enslave something in us...”
How true and profoundly annoying.
Wowww
I’ve read this in my collection back home…I just had to read it again.
If you’ve been called mad for being different, you know. And it’s okay.
I know the meaning of this verse very well....having met thee.madman in my dreams and on the streets not of San Francisco, but Lafayette, CA. Mel C. Thompson poet laureate.
🙏🏽✨️
Or is he? Is even his life time to be stolen?
The way I interpret “safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us” is through a Mad Pride and anti-psychiatry lens.
Those who have been granted the power in a society to determine who and what gets labeled as “mentally ill,” like the psychiatrists and their Bible, the DSM, are the ones who claim the power to understand what madness is and to label others as mad. But they do so in service to the system that grants them that power in the first place.
Such labels as autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, BPD, etc. are just constructs that serve maintaining the power of the status quo. They are used to other us and disempower us and strip us of our agency and freedom, to institutionalize or incercerate those of us who cannot be forced to conform, to wear the masks, to appear “cured.”
So they claim they are the ones who understand us, and in doing so, we are enslaved within their system.
Oof, there was so much to unpack in that while being verbally blasted by a firehose of misdirected anger, disinformation, and straw man arguments. I'd never heard of Amy Lutz or terms like "intact mind" or "facilitated communication" until reading this.
It would take me a lot of mental energy to go through each paragraph and fully share where I think a concept is being misrepresented or where I think Lutz is just tragically misguided, and mental energy is not something I have an abundance of right now.
Fwiw, I'm not just a late-recognized autistic self-advocate, I'm also a mom of two autistic adults, one who was formally diagnosed at age 3 back in the days when autism was seen as a tragic diagnosis and misinformation was rampant about a link to vaccines. There's a lot that I will not say about what it was like for our family in those days because it would require talking about my kids' personal lives and that's simply not my story to tell. I have, at times, disclosed some aspects of it with their permission and ability to read what I've written prior to sharing, and maybe one day we will tell our family's story together and write a book, but we've all got much larger pressing issues weighing on our lives right now.
I do agree with one thing Lutz said, that there is a "politically-motivated decline in services and programs specifically for the autistic," but she seems to be pointing the finger in the wrong direction.
When I ran for state legislature, one of the forums I attended as a candidate was held by a non-profit organization for individuals with intellectually and developmentally disabled adult children and their families. It was one of the more stressful experiences I had on the campaign trail, because the things parents will say about and right in front of their kids, who often fully understand what is being said about them, was heartbreaking. One mother said she only hoped her child died before she did, because she couldn't imagine her kid going on without her. Which is just tragic all around, that she is so unsupported that she feels that way, and that she would say such a thing in front of her kid, who quite likely understood her.
I will disclose one thing that touches on our experience. One of my kids, as an adult, told me that they understood everything their doctors and I spoke about when they were a kid and we thought they weren't listening or couldn't understand. That is something painful I have to live with. I feel a tremendous amount of anger towards the Psychiatric community that I naively trusted to know better than I did. The harm they have inflicted on our entire family can never be forgiven.
That is why the autistic self-advocacy movement exists and why we say "nothing about us without us." Because even well-meaning parents, like the one I was, can inflict trauma on our loved ones. That cycle of well-meaning harm must be broken.
I did run across this statement linked below that I agree with regarding Lutz and her camp, so I will leave you with that for now.
https://thinkingautismguide.com/2013/01/why-did-amy-lutz-attack.html
Here's a personal example to illustrate how this can play out. I was diagnosed in my early 20s as having Bipolar Disorder, a diagnosis made up by the psychiatrists granted power by the State to make up medical diagnoses for various ways distress manifests in society when you struggle be the appropriate level of obedient producer and consumer the State requires. When I made the mistake of turning to these professionals for help, they made their diagnosis official by giving me a checklist with questions like "Have you ever shoplifted?" and "Do you get into heated arguments with others?" and "Do you often experience financial difficulties?" As a young mother in an abusive relationship living in poverty, the way I answered the questions qualified me to be diagnosed as a Bipolar person. Now that I was officially labeled by these esteemed professionals as a person with a heavily stigmatized mental illness, that could be weaponized against me, both by my abuser and by the State. I could be hospitalized and medicated with sedating drugs against my will, and when my abuser wanted to flex his power over me when I was being too difficult to control, he could call the State's thugs, aka police, and tell them I was crazy, diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and they easily believed him over me, the sobbing, disheveled, and heavily sedated woman, because he was not sobbing, disheveled, or heavily sedated, and they took me to solitary confinement, because I was a suicide risk, of course. I was released the following day because my abuser didn't show up to court. He didn't need to. He'd taught me the lesson he wanted me to learn. Don't you dare try to defend yourself again. Do as I say. Just as the State and their thugs do.
I don't feel understood by them either, but they are the ones who have been granted the authority to be the gatekeepers of understanding, which is how we are enslaved by them. They have stolen our power to be believed when we say we understand ourselves better than they do. It's very toxic.