Identity and Mental Health: A Focus on the Impact of being seen as Different
(Part 1 of 2, of a summary of a presentation given by Professor David Divine by invitation to the annual staff conference of the Aberlour Child Care Trust, Scotland, on the 24th October 2018 in Stirling, Scotland)
Re-Imagining, Thinking differently, not because we are forced to but because we wish to, based upon a desire to view everybody else around us as equally valued as ourselves, worthy of acknowledgement in spite of their diversity, differences, worthy of respect, being seen as of limitless value and potential, rightly commanding of our love, support, encouragement and understanding.
Achieving that, sustaining that, acting on that, in spite of pressures to think and act contrary, demands Courage, Supports and Faith. We as individual workers, including volunteers, seeking to assist others less fortunate than ourselves, are immersed in worlds of human interaction and varying levels of distress, need and achievement, largely removed from the day to day direct knowledge, sight and understanding of most members of the wider society. We often work in closed worlds.
We are in a privileged position to spearhead the further creation and dissemination of ways of seeing individuals and working with such individuals who appear different to us.
We endeavour to achieve this in a manner that acknowledges their uniqueness, embraces their humanity, celebrates their contribution to society, and to further strengthening of them-selves.
We need to work in partnership with those perceived as ‘different’ in working out how to best capture the words, images, feelings, meaning, that convey the humanity and ‘worth’ of those seen as ‘different’, to those who do not see themselves as ‘different’. The voices of those portrayed as ’different,’ are central and must take the lead in determining how their voices should be heard.
As Audrey Lorde stated, a wonderful Black writer, academic and activist, ‘Those of us forged in the crucibles of difference…know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, (be) unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those identified as outside the structures, in order, to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.’ (Lorde, 1979:96, ‘The Master’s Tools Will never dismantle The Master’s House’)
Being viewed as ‘different’ in some way, Matters. It has consequences, sometimes lethal. The reason being seen as ‘different’ matters, is that it involves placing a value on an aspect of our humanity, our identity, part of what makes us so unique and special, and where that value is a negative one and acted upon by those placing the value because they have the power to do so, the ‘authority’ to do so, has results often life-long.
Linked with this making of a value on an aspect of your humanity and identity is a decision of those placing the value on you, as to whether you ‘belong’ in society. As Ta-Nehisi Coates (a formidable Black commentator on American society), states in a foreword to The Origin of Others (2017) by Toni Morrison (Pulitzer prize winning writer), ‘who fits under the umbrella of society and who does not’. Those not considered as fitting under the umbrella of society are classified as ‘Others’-those existing ‘‘beyond the border of a great ‘belonging’.’’
‘’Descriptions of cultural, racial and physical differences that note ‘otherness’ but remain free of categories of worth or rank are difficult to come by.’’ (Tony Morrison, 2017, p3)
‘One learns Othering not by lecture or instruction but by example’. The way the world works around us. How people behave and think in our midst. The day to day rhythm of life as we know it through personal experience of what we have been told, seen and experienced.
In the next blog article I will address what this process of Othering does to those who inflict this injustice on others and also look at the consequences of this on those at the receiving end and how it can be countered.