Mentally Diseased - is it partly our fault that we got this label?

by cappytan 29 Replies latest jw friends

  • Finkelstein
    Finkelstein

    the subliminal messages conspiracy theorists

    In truthful reality these are usually people who were most likely nutters before getting involved with the JWS.

    The WTS/JWS has been known to attract paranoid schizophrenics because of its end of the world doctrines which essentially is its marketing strategy for its publications.


  • OneEyedJoe
    OneEyedJoe
    Another thought on this - confirmation bias being what it is, the GB could probably tell the JWs that apostates turn green after they defect and JWs would find a way to see examples confirming this. If someone left and wore green eye shadow once, would she then be partially responsible for the statement? The mentally diseased nonsense is just a means of demonizing us and reinforcing the phobia. I wouldn't read too much more into it beyond that.
  • StephaneLaliberte
    StephaneLaliberte

    I find this topic very interesting. I didn’t want to go to the meetings anymore, so I told the elders that I had to work all the time. Now that I am completely inactive, they are probably assuming that it is because I worked all the time that I have left while in fact, it is the other way around.

    Same thing with my wife, she told them she was sick. Though that was also true, she was not sick to the extent of missing every meetings for months. So now, elders are thinking that she became inactive due to missing meetings while it’s the other way around.

    If they actually stopped to think about it a little, they would understand that many are leaving based on the teachings. However, since no one is allowed to question these, we all say what they expect and feed into the wrong theories: If you don’t study the bible, don't study the watchtower publication, don’t go in field service, don’t pray, don’t go to meetings or don’t associate with your brothers and sisters, YOU WILL FALL.

    In fact, it is the other way around. It is because of things found in the bible, in the watchtowers, the erroneous teachings pushed in field service, the unanswered prayers, the abrasive teachings at the meetings and the lack of love from the brothers and sisters, that we have chosen to leave the JW.

    We have done exactly what they told us to do. And because of these things, we have left. And because they don't want to hear it, we have to say that we are sick or working all the time to shut them up. Pathetic.

  • 4thgen
    4thgen

    THEY have always correlated 'spiritual weakness' with being 'mentally unbalanced'.

    It used to be that the WT never admitted that someone who was active could ever be clinically depressed. (they were not putting Jehovah first or they wouldn't be depressed or so they indicated) and if you just had enough faith you would not need medication or assistance from mental health professionals. It was a big deal when they actually admitted that the elders were not qualified to handle all cases.

    They will never admit that THEY are the ones unbalanced and in need of mental health assistance (my preference is a lobotomy for them) for all the spiritual abuses they heaped upon the willing sheep.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    A common way for apostates to "fade" is to pretend to have depression or anxiety problems.

    Is it possible, that when apostates become known, the elders report to the Society that said person was undergoing mental health problems?

    I can see a scenario where the Society then took those statistics that were reported and just decided, "Well, it looks like the only ones leaving are those with mental diseases."....cappytan

    Now that`s friggin funny..LOL!!..Good one Cappy!..

    .

    The reality is "Mentally Diseased" is used as a derogatory remark..

    Not a medical condition..

    .

    .........It`s the WBT$ Way Of..

    PUTTING A SIGN ON YOUR BACK.

    ...............Image result for demonize

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow

    No, I do not think that apostates are in any way whatsoever responsible for the label of "mentally diseased". The term is not usual for those who suffer from mental issues - by using the word "diseased", the label becomes what Outlaw said - an insult. Disease implies that it is communicable, that the malady of apostates is contagious.

    And by the way...that is a form of textual subliminal messaging. Which, apparently, people have the ability to accept before they can accept that an image can do the same thing.

    Oh, and not to mention the subliminal messages conspiracy theorists. I mean, if subliminal message conspiracy theorist doesn't scream some kind of mental issues, I don't know what does.

    And so the subliminal imaging "conspiracy" raises its ugly head once again. Sigh.

    I have posted extensively about this subject before and I was reluctant to post again...but, I can't help myself.

    I fail to understand the willingness of people to accept that textual information, the kind that has been translated into letters and syntax - a visual language that we have been trained to understand as "text', can be corrupted and manipulated by entities such as the WTS, but - they cannot accept that the same thing is done with the images. The position of those who mock and reject the manipulation of the image is a position, I am afraid to say, of one of ignorance.

    I have no compunction saying this - and the reason I can say it with confidence is because I have the backing of experts in the field of image making and critical analysis of the textual components of visual language. And, I am one of those "experts". I have a Masters degree in the study of imaging making and the politics of representation. I can confidently say that I could take the subject of subliminal messages in Watchtower images to a university classroom, on the politics and history of propaganda images, and present a lecture on the subject, to a body of peers - university professors with years of knowledge in cultural studies - on the concept of "subliminal imaging" and the purposefulness of the WTS' images. The result would be an intelligent, rational acceptance of that theory. I know this because I have already discussed it with educated artists and theorists who see the subliminal images in the WT images and agree that they have been deliberately inserted.

    I cannot say the same for this forum. In spite of my own input into this subject, and other posters who have consulted professional artists and other academics on this subject who collaborate the theory...there still are people with no training, no knowledge, and no background in art or the history of imaging, or the ability to read an image as a text, who will still come on here and make that cultural stereotypical insult that artists are "mentally diseased". Or, that those who study the phenomena of subliminal imaging in WTS literature are mentally diseased.

    Well, if disease is communicable, I can only hope that you catch the "disease" of being able to deconstruct images as well as you can deconstruct text.

    Image is text, and the text of the image is not sacrosanct - the WTS manipulates the image text just as much as they do the alphabetic text.

  • BluesBrother
    BluesBrother

    The expression correctly used refers to illnesses of the mind, psychotic disorders . The 1984 NWT rendered 1 Tim 6.4 in this way:

    3 If any man teaches other doctrine and does not assent to healthful words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor to the teaching that accords with godly devotion, 4 he is puffed up [with pride], not understanding anything, but being mentally diseased over questionings and debates about word
    This led them to describe apostates as :
    Wt 2011 7/15 p16
    "Suppose that a doctor told you to avoid contact with someone who is infected with a contagious, deadly disease. You would know what the doctor means, and you would strictly heed his warning. Well, apostates are “mentally diseased,” and they seek to infect others with their disloyal teachings. (1 Tim. 6:3, 4) Jehovah, the Great Physician, tells us to avoid contact with them. We know what he means, but are we determined to heed his warning in all respects?"

    Well , mental disorders are not catching.....Evidently the translation was badly chosen. One of the few improvements in the 2013 NWT is that it dropped that expression and now says "He is obsessed with arguments. ....Of course , once given a label it sticks in the minds of the dubs.. NB one should remember that Paul was talking about the teachings of the Christ, not the teachings of the WTS !


  • prologos
    prologos

    BluesBrother: "--teaches other doctrine --". wt teaches other doctrines all the time otherwise called new light, so the GB is mentally diseased, but we apostates so labelled are not the only ones at the end of GB's pointing fingers. we share that privilege with all the 14 000 other non- F&DS partakers, the future fellow rulers with Christ no less.

    Just think of the "other doctrines' of the last 60 years. there is your biblical defined symptom of mental disease.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    ecan6 - "In fact, it is the other way around. It is because of things found in the bible, in the watchtowers, the erroneous teachings pushed in field service, the unanswered prayers, the abrasive teachings at the meetings and the lack of love from the brothers and sisters, that we have chosen to leave the JW."

    A bit ironic, considering they used to love publishing stories about people in the Middle Ages being burned at the stake for reading the Bible and coming to different conclusions than the Church...

  • StrongHaiku
    StrongHaiku

    Demonizing an enemy is one of the basic tenets of warfare - From Wikipedia - "Demonization is the oldest propaganda technique aimed to inspire hatred toward the enemy necessary to hurt them more easily, to preserve and mobilize allies and demoralize the enemy."

    They are not making a medical or psychological assessment. What this does is allow them to justify the treatment of the "other" (i.e. ex-JWs). On a side note, I never tried to "infect others" with my ideas. I kept my mouth shut about the JWs for over a decade. Once, they started the name-calling, all bets were off.

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