In contemporary American culture, going to the psychiatrist means you're crazy. But going to a therapist means you're rich and stylishly uptight. I hate it when you talk about 'contemporary American culture' this and 'contemporary American culture' that.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker criticizes how American culture frames psychiatry and therapy as markers of status or sanity.
- In plain terms
- People judge mental health help based on stereotypes.
- What can you take from it?
- Mental health care should not be judged by status.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What stops you from getting help?
- How do you view therapy?
Another view
It oversimplifies complex social dynamics.
More from Orson Scott Card
It was a terrible thing to know about himself, that he could feel such lust to punish a submissive enemy
Permalink to quote #680 Step hated feeling such rage toward the person he loved most. And it wasn't the yearning love of young romance, but rather the kind of love that made her feel …
Permalink to quote #682 The word does not exist, except in the mouths of those who are pretending to be educated but in fact are not
Permalink to quote #679
Related quotes
'...in the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them . . . .' (p. 3)
Lin YutangLin Yutang quote #2 Used to be being crazy meant something. Nowadays, everybody's crazy
Charles MansonCharles Manson quote #14 Our patients are the ones who express and live out the subconscious and unconscious tendencies in the culture. The neurotic, or person suffering from what we n…
Rollo MayRollo May quote #24