IQ is valued in society. In fact the other forms of intelligence, crystalising and reasoning, in the conventional model of intelligence (the one which doesn't cover creativity, emotions, compassion or heart) may be more important in modern society.
Current treatments for schizophrenia...fuck it...can I call it dementia praecox. I think Kraeplin was right and the psychotic disorders make more sense lumped together for this discussion. Current treatments for dementia praecox don't think about value to society.
What the fuck am I talking about now? What I'm thinking about is the treatment of dementia praecox in children. It's not very good.
What I'm thinking about is my own life history. I would or could have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness as aq child. Instead I was thrown out of home because of my behaviour. I saw a psychiatrist but wasn't given a diagnosis nor treatment. Instead of a ward I was sent to a children's home and a foster home for a short period.
I returned home and was quickly sent off to boarding school. An expensive option. My parents value education. They sacrificed a lot to send me there. Best fucking therapy I ever had.
I then got a pretty hardcore job for an 18 year old. For a year I worked as an assistant systems engineer before I went to uni.
I was probably reasonably smart to get that job in the first place. Had I ended up in the psychiatric system it could never have happened.
I got IQ through being thrown out of home but not ending up in psychiatric care. Three years I could have spent out of education, with reduced social contact and having to deal with a stigmatising label.
Out of all of those factors I pick education as the way to enable a change in the negative prognosis for children with schizophrenia.
Simple ain't I? In this life education and intelligence are valued. People with dementia praecox are intelligent in ways society has yet to understand, but there are many ways intelligence offered can be understood.
Proritising the educational assets for the disadvantaged may change the disadvantage in cultures where education and intelligence are highly valued. Since treatment is bullshit anyway we might as well advantage through treatment.
The advantage is seen by looking at the bigger picture.
The purpose. Save those kids lives from the shit of society and psychiatry. Take a leaf out of my luck and life. Give those kids the opportunities. Even if society hates them give them the skills society values. Create the protective factor. Save them from the outcomes of a sick society.
That's my simple thinking.
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