Some LGBT activists think Christian parents should be prosecuted if they seek Christian counseling for a teen who suffers from gender dysphoria. If your son says he's really a girl or your daughter says she's really a boy, you should affirm their self-identification.
Do they apply the same logic to anorexia? What happens when other people see a gaunt teenage girl and think to themselves, "She's awfully thin. She's downright emaciated"–but when the gaunt teenage girl looks at herself the mirror, she thinks to herself, "I'm fat! I need to diet!"
Should her parents say, "Yes, honey, you need to starve yourself."
What about someone who suffers from species dysphoria. Take lycanthropy. He self-identifies as a wolf.
Should we let him run around naked in the woods in sub-zero temperatures, looking for raw muskrat meat to consume? Should we let him die of hypothermia or malnourishment? Or does he require a medical intervention?
Are transgenderism and anorexia really comparable, though? If you say you're a girl trapped in a boy's body, that is conceivably true. However, if you say you're fat when you're dangerously thin, that's clearly a delusion.
ReplyDeleteYou might argue that transgenderism is also a delusion, but if you demonstrate that, there's little point for an analogy in the first place.
"Are transgenderism and anorexia really comparable, though? If you say you're a girl trapped in a boy's body, that is conceivably true. However, if you say you're fat when you're dangerously thin, that's clearly a delusion."
DeleteActually, the comparison would more like:
i) I'm a girl trapped in a boy's body
ii) I'm a thin girl trapped in a fat girl's body
How is (ii) clearly delusional but (i) is not?
Fact is, the optimal weight is far more subjective than your physical gender.
There's no empirical evidence that the person in question is a girl trapped in a boy's body. All the empirical evidence points to a boy through-and-through.
"You might argue that transgenderism is also a delusion, but if you demonstrate that, there's little point for an analogy in the first place."
i) What exactly do you think there is to demonstrate? There's a certain pervasive ambiguity or equivocation in play. Is lycanthropy a delusion? Depends on what you mean. Evidently, there really are humans who imagine they are wolves. That's a real psychological condition. But by the same token, it's a mark of mental illness.
In other words, lycanthropes aren't lying about their self-perception. But their self-perception is a radical misperception.
ii) In addition, how many people now claim to be transgender, not because they actually feel that way, but because it's the hip, chic new thing to be? They want to experiment. Be popular. Be the center of attention. Gain instant sympathy and status.
iii) How many young people are sexually confused due to poor socialization? Broken homes. Blended families. Bad role models. Mixed signals from the pop culture. Peer pressure.
iv) Finally, delusions can be acquired. Take the suppressed memories scam, where psychologists made patients believe they were victims of sexual abuse or ritual satanic abuse.
Some people are highly suggestible. In a receptive state, it's amazing what they can be made to believe.
What about someone who suffers from species dysphoria. Take lycanthropy. He self-identifies as a wolf.
ReplyDelete...or Cotard's Syndrome where the person thinks they are already dead?