Betty,

        Back in graduate school in a course on social psychology, there was
a concept called a "demand quality". Basically, iit was something about a
person which "demanded" reaction from another person. I think we could
reframe Anee's neuropsychologist's report in the way. He interpreted a
large part of her behavior as a result of her disability. Her CP presented
such a demand quality to him, that he  interjected it into inappropriate
inferences and interpretations. One thing we have to realize is that many
professionals do not know much about our disabilities, but infer a whole
lot. Anee's pschiatrist framed his analysis in the light of her
family/social situation. The neuropsych. guy didn't. Basically, it boils
downs to is the pproblem in the person, or is it outside the person in the
social setting. Too many mental health people see the problem as being
within the person.

Bobby

>In a message dated 11/09/1999 10:54:43 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><<
>         Sorry for the short note. Szasz says basically what I understood
> you to be saying, i.e., mental disorders are frequently in the eye of the
> beholder rather than in the person. We assume so much about another person.
>  >>
>
>Thanks for the clarification Bobby -- I wasn't sure whether you were saying
>you agreed or disagreed with me.  I was so certain that I was on target with
>this, but I knew that I had to be open to disagreement too.
>
>Anee's experience and my experience are particularly interesting in light of
>Szasz's comment that "mental disorders are frequently in the eye of the
>beholder rather than in the person."  I would like to think I'm trying to
>follow Anee's lead by promoting disability awareness, except that I am
>probably doing a much poorer job of it (being a "newbie").
>
>But what I consider to be a quality characteristic of Anee's (wonderful)
>personality -- the desire to focus on CP awareness education -- seemed to get
>negative attention from her psychologist.  Focusing on disability awareness
>education is a major goal for me too, and my psychiatrist thought it was a
>positive step.
>
>There are many variables involved too, I know that.  We're two different
>people -- different disability experiences, etc., but still, I think it's an
>interesting comparison.
>
>Anee is a tremendous asset to the disability community.
>
>Betty
>
>Betty