Does Society Gain Something...

By Labelling Some People as Inherently Defective

...and unable to perceive reality “correctly”?

By Patricia Lefave, Monophrenic

I think that it does. I think what is gained is this:

1. Socially sanctioned targets: people available for group abuse who are perceived as getting “just what they deserve” for being “defective.”

2. Group Catharsis: all the negative emotions being suppressed, often by drugs which are not doing such a great job, can now be released safely on a socially acceptable target who will not be defended by others, nor cause any problems for the raging, irrational “normal” acting out on them.

3. Pseudo Bonding : Individuals in groups get a false sense of bonding and intimacy from the phenomenon without revealing the truth about themselves, or seeing it in other group members. That is because the whole group focuses externally on the 'one' who does not belong, and who becomes a surrogate for the friends and relatives to whom they cannot express any negative feelings without risking expulsion from the group.
This is about “belonging” and the fear that if one does not comply with the consensus reality, one will be forced out of the group, and into isolation, JUST LIKE the one the group is attacking for not being LIKE THEM.

Nothing says “belonging” like mocking, ridiculing, harassing, nudging, winking, eye rolling and smirking with your buddies of like minds, at someone who is clearly “less than human.” When done along with others who think and behave in exactly the same way, its a real ego booster. What could be more validating than that especially if the group members can convince themselves that it is all right since the “defective one” is too stupid and crazy to possibly understand what the group is doing.

The problem is: the defective one understands you perfectly, but is TOLD that he or she does not, that people do not behave this way and that if the targeted defective 'thinks' they do, this 'proves' he or she is 'defective.' This is the demonstration of the self fulfilling prophecy of the 'game'; the self fulfilling prophecy of 'schizophrenia.” The targeted individual breaks under the load of unrelenting stress caused by the group madness which is projected onto the target in order to keep the “benefits” of the group behaviour going for the whole mad group which remains in it's perpetual state of denial.