avatarAndrew P. Brown III, PhD

Summary

The web content discusses Racial Pathological Disorder (RPD), a proposed mental health disorder characterized by pervasive distrust, suspiciousness, and fear of ethnically diverse individuals, which the author argues should be recognized and addressed within the mental health community and government policy.

Abstract

The article introduces the concept of Racial Pathological Disorder (RPD), a mental health condition that manifests as an enduring pattern of distrust and fear towards individuals from different ethnic backgrounds. RPD is described as having symptoms similar to other mental health disorders, including a lack of empathy, a disregard for others' rights, and an inflated self-appraisal. The author contends that RPD not only affects individual behavior but also influences government policy, perpetuating systemic racism. The article emphasizes the need for RPD to be acknowledged as a mental health disorder by the American Psychological Association (APA) and other relevant bodies, suggesting that such recognition could lead to more effective policies and interventions to combat racism at both individual and systemic levels. The APA's recent apology for its role in perpetuating racism is seen as a step towards this recognition, and the author calls for a redefinition of racism as a mental disorder to facilitate America's transition to a more equitable society.

Opinions

  • The author believes that racism should be recast as a mental health disorder, termed Racial Pathological Disorder (RPD), to address its deep-rooted impact on society.
  • RPD is portrayed as a pervasive and persistent condition that affects not just individuals but also shapes discriminatory government policies.
  • The article criticizes the historical role of the American Psychological Association (APA) in promoting and perpetuating racial biases and calls for the APA to recognize racism as a form of mental illness.
  • The author suggests that recognizing RPD as a mental health issue would allow for a more objective analysis of policy decisions, ensuring they are free from pathological elements.
  • There is an opinion that the current demographic shift in America, from a white majority to a white minority, necessitates a reevaluation of racism through the lens of mental health to support a fair and just society.
  • The author implies that treating RPD could lead to a healing process for individuals and the nation, resulting in reformed social policies and a new cultural identity that serves the greater good.
  • The article conveys that the existing mental health framework, as outlined in the DSM-5, should be expanded to include RPD, reflecting a more comprehensive understanding of mental health disorders that account for societal and systemic impacts.

Racial Pathological Disorder

There are nearly 300 disorders of mental health in the official diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals: Not one of them address racism.

Artwork by Makoto. Used by permission.

Racism, at the individual level, is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates from our common humanity. It is pervasive and inflexible without treatment. It has onset in childhood, adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment. It encapsulates a disordered mental state that validates behaviors, transgressional in nature, upon distinct others in routine fashion. When practiced at the group level, it influences government policy and legislation that affects the mental, physical and financial health of the nation at large. Government policy that emanates from a sustained state of psychopathology is incompatible with the burgeoning ethnically-diverse demographic dynamic that has become America.

Racial Pathological Disorder is defined as a pattern of pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of ethnically diverse others such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent. Individuals with this disorder demonstrate a pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others from population groups distinct from their own. Additionally, these individuals frequently lack empathy and tend to be callous, cynical, and contemptuous of the feelings, rights, and sufferings of others.

These individuals have an inflated and arrogant self-appraisal and may be excessively opinionated, self-assured, or cocky. They may display a glib, superficial charm and can be quite voluble and verbally facile (e.g., using technical terms or jargon that might impress someone who is unfamiliar with the topic).

A fundamental aspect of this disorder is that these individuals assume that others, from population groups distinct from their own, will exploit, harm, or deceive them, even if no evidence exists to support this expectation. They suspect, on the basis of little or no evidence, that these others are plotting against them and may attack them suddenly, at any time and without reason.

These individuals may often feel that they have been deeply and irreversibly injured by ethnically diverse others even when there is no objective evidence for this. They minutely scrutinize the actions of ethnically diverse others for evidence of hostile intentions, and any perceived slight serves to support their underlying assumptions. Because they are constantly vigilant to the harmful intentions of ethnically diverse others, they very often feel that their character or reputation has been attacked or that they have been slighted in some other way. They are quick to counterattack and react with anger to perceived insults. Individuals with this disorder may be pathologically jealous and may gather trivial and circumstantial “evidence” to support their jealous beliefs.

These individuals may exhibit a strong need to establish complete control in interactions with ethnically diverse others and assume a self-justified empowerment that entitles their right to constantly question and challenge the whereabouts, actions, and intentions of these others.

An essential feature of Racial Pathological Disorder is marked and persistent fear of ethnically diverse individuals. These individuals experience a marked, persistent, and excessive or unreasonable fear when in the presence of, or when anticipating an encounter with, ethnically diverse people. There often appears a positive relationship between the intensity of the fear and gradations of skin tone (i.e., the darker the skin the greater the fear). Mature adults with this disorder recognize that the fear is excessive or unreasonable. The associated diagnoses of Delusional Disorder is added for adults who do not mature to recognize that their fear is excessive and unreasonable. In some people, insight into the excessive or unreasonable nature of the fear tends to increase with age.

With regard to associated features: individuals with Racial Pathological Disorder tend to have a self-imposed sense of superiority, which serves to justify their need to have a high degree of control. When around ethnically diverse people, they are often rigid, critical, and unable to collaborate. They have great difficulty accepting criticism and tend to blame ethnically diverse others for their own shortcomings.

Individuals with this disorder seek to confirm their preconceived negative notions regarding ethnically diverse people or situations they encounter, attributing malevolent motivations to others that are projections of their own fears and insecurities. They may exhibit thinly hidden, unrealistic grandiose fantasies, are often attuned to issues of power and rank, and tend to develop negative stereotypes of the population groups distinct from their own. Attracted by simplistic formulations of the world, they are often wary of ambiguous situations. They may be perceived as “fanatics” and form tightly knit “cults” or groups with others who share their paranoid belief systems.

Racial Pathological Disorder may appear as the premorbid antecedent of Delusional Disorder. Individuals with Racial Pathological Disorder may also develop Major Depressive Disorder and may be at increased risk for Agoraphobia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Alcohol and other substance abuse or chemical dependence frequently occur. The most common co-occurring personality disorders appear as Anti-social, Narcissistic, Avoidant, Schizotypal and Borderline.

Summation

Racism as a social ill, must be recast as a mental disorder.

The American Psychological Association (i.e. APA) has recently issued a formal proclamation of apology to people of color: “for their role in promoting, perpetuating, and failing to challenge racism, racial discrimination, and human hierarchy in the United States.” In response, this author stated that Black American psychologists on the front line have been vocal for decades about the inherent whiteness that pervades all of psychology; from biased research to, the employment of biased instruments used in clinical assessment, all stemming from a biased epistemology. Black American psychologists have, as a matter of routine, been ignored, minimized, refuted, attacked, rendered not credible, portrayed as angry, rebellious, and/or simply patronized by the establishment.

If the APA truly intends to “put their money where their mouth is” then with this apology should come recognition that it is way past time to recognize racism as a mental health disorder.

Recognizing racism as a form of mental illness, at both individual and systemic levels, allows lawmakers to recast consideration of policy by determining an absence or presence of pathological elements inherent to the policy under examination.

Designating racism as a mental pathology does not render White American identity safe and secure by excusing its behavior, rather, it unveils the grotesque underpinnings of a pathologized culture, while at the same time, challenging one to confront that identity.

In order for America to move forward toward a society that is fair, equal and just for all, especially in light of the demographic transition from a white majority to a white minority, racism as a social ill, must be redefined as a mental disorder. A proper transition demands that the federal government reverse course and prepare for a multicultural reality. Lawmakers must recognize and identify federal policy that originates from Racial Pathological Disorder in order to 1) modify or eradicate the policy and 2) allow for the creation of policy based in debate and decisions that, at the fundamental level, are mentally sound.

Political discourse steeped in a culture of cults, that enable the Racial Hierarchy social construct, only sustains the psychopathology.

It is imperative that federal, state and local governments recognize the presence of this pathology in established policy in order to support an America that affords opportunity and is fair, just and equal under the law. For this to happen, America as a nation must undergo a healing process to treat as many individuals afflicted with Racial Pathological Disorder as possible. This is best accomplished through recognition, awareness and education leading to reformed social order and policy creation incompatible with constructs derived from mental pathology.

In order to treat any disorder, the symptoms corresponding to the ailment must be described, and that description is offered here. It is a prescriptive initial step that cannot be overlooked as the American experiment transitions from a climate of racial animus to a cultural identity that serves the greater good.

References

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5) American psychiatric Association (2013).

Thank you for reading.

© 2022 Andrew P. Brown III, PhD. All rights reserved.

Psychology
Mental Health
Racism
Psychopathology
Psychiatry
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