It should be noted, however, that multiple diagnoses (using DSM) could be assembled to help address some aspects of a systemic assessment. For instance, what is likely to be the most common psychological/psychiatric response to the current virus? Are we most likely to find phobias, depression or paranoia and are any of the DSM diagnoses likely to be more prevalent within specific regions, cultural groups, social-economic groups, or nations? This would be a wonderful way in which diagnosis and assessment might join in a collaborative dance leading to both understanding and cure.
Prejudice and Authoritarianism
This leads us to a final topic that might be the most challenging in our current deeply troubled world. At a recent meeting I attended, one of the members asked if racism could be classified as a mental illness. What about, more broadly, the appearance of prejudice and authoritarianism in the perspectives and behavior of an individual?
On the one hand, the diagnosis would not be particularly difficult. Many tests have been produced and validated over the years that are associated with these personality factors—beginning with the F scale which served as a base for one of the most important (and controversial) social psychological studies ever conducted—and reported in The Authoritarian Personality (Adorno, et. al, 1964). Furthermore, this diagnosis could be supported and fully reinforced by an assumptive world of social deviance. Many behavioral scientists and political policy formulators would love to place a scientifically validated label on people whom they consider “abnormal” and despicable.
On the other hand, this assignment of a label and associated condemnation is fraught with problems regarding bias and polarization. Most of the studies and descriptions of prejudice, authoritarianism and racism come with a left-wing bias and agenda. There is little in the way of research on the prejudice to be found at the extreme of the liberal political perspective. We do find in the work of Milton Rokeach (1973) a recognition that both the left and right extreme of the political spectrum can be closed minded. What specifically is the case with racism? Is this only a “pathology” of the right-wing? Is there a virulent form of racism to be found across all political perspectives? And what do we do with this “pathology” once it has been diagnosed? As in the case of sexual orientation, gender identification, trauma and pandemic viruses, we might find that what we wish for is not something about which we can do much about if granted the wish.
