"Post-Slavery Traumatic Stress Syndrome"-Real or Imagined?

[ralph124c]

I just read about a new psychological malady, recntly discovered: PSTSS! Apparently, this afflicts black males, who are traumatized because their ancestors were subjected to the horrors of slavery!
My questions:
-can mental conditions persist for generations AFTER the incient ofinjury?
-how does one get diagnosed as suffering from PSTSS?
-are substantial benefits in the offing for sufferers of PSTSS?
-who is starting the class action lawsuit?
PSTSS-pass it on!

[Jonathan_Chance]

Any cite for that? I’d need to know more before I could comment.

[Mr.Blue_Sky]

Bullshit meter going off the scale. (IMHO)

[Crafter_Man]

Hmmm. Sounds like another trendy / imaginary disease. But more pathetic than others, IMO.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Well, Ralph, if I tell you, “That’s just a politicized made-up thing, designed to prey on white guilt”, I’ll get jumped on by the purveyors thereof for being anti-black. So I won’t say it.

It’s a “real” thing, apparently, although how “real” it is I think each one of us must decide for himself, [channeling Al Sharpton] by looking in our hearts and deciding how much responsibility each one of us bears for the deaths and enslavement of millions of Africans 150 years ago… [/channeling Al Sharpton]

http://new.blackvoices.com/features/heritage/bv-maafa020214,0,2248831.story?coll=bv-heritage-utility

‘Maafa: The Black Holocaust’ travels to Windy City
Courtesy of Trinity United Church of Christ

Under the banner of the paraphrased words of enslaved Africans, “Do Not Forget My Chains,” Trinity United Church of Christ brings to Chicago “Maafa: The Black Holocaust,” Feb. 22–23.

The Maafa Commemoration will feature more than two dozen local, national and international speakers, including Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. Iva Carruthers and Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr., who will give the closing address on the theme, “An Apology and Reparations.”

< snip >

On Friday, the Professional Training Institute will focus on two topics: “Post Slavery Traumatic Stress Syndrome: Diagnosing the Symptoms,” and “Healing the Legacy of Slavery and Racism Within the African-American Community.” Internationally recognized psychologist Dr. Wade Nobles will deliver the keynote address. Other prominent professional will conduct and participate in workshops during the Training Institute, including Dr. Janice Hale, Dr. Sokini Karanja, Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary, Attorney Lewis Meyers, Justice R. Eugene Pincham, State Representative Monique Davis, and many others. Continuing Education Credits will be available to Training Institute attendees.

[Early_Out]

I’ll wager that some hefty reparations for slavery could easily cure instances of this terrible affliction. “Cash, now available in prescription strength!”

[Jonathan_Chance]

I’ll be damned.

Hey, I’m a Jew. Can I get reparations from Egypt?

[rexnervous]

What about Post-On-The-Fence-Caught-In-The-Middle Traumatic Stress Syndrome?

None of my ancestors either owned slaves, or were slaves. But man, did they have to deal with all the arguing and debating and violence between the two sides. This will probably affect my children’s children’s children it runs so deep.

[drachillix]

*Originally posted by Early Out *
**I’ll wager that some hefty reparations for slavery could easily cure instances of this terrible affliction. **

Gotta make up for the revenue loss from Hooked on Ebonics[sup]TM[/sup] somehow.

[unclviny]

!!caution: reactionary redneck at work, you have been warned!!

why am i so sure that the guys who came up with this are interested in my wallet?

short and sweet:
i never owned a slave
you never were a slave

leave my wallet alone, get a job, and pull up your **%$#@! pants!

unclviny

[Ethilrist]

Do black people in Africa get this, or is it only the descendants of people who were slaves here in the U.S.?

[Padeye]

I’m astonished this hasn’t been booted to great debates by the mods. I have some opinions for sure but I’ll keep them in another forum.

*Originally posted by ralph124c *
My questions:
-can mental conditions persist for generations AFTER the incient ofinjury?

This is pretty much the same as Lamarkian inheritance which for most folks is off the scale on the BS meter though it does have its proponents. A quick seach turned up this on a message board. http://psy.fsu.edu/pipermail/genetics/2001-November/001391.html but I’d hardly take it as a valid and relevant cite.

**

-how does one get diagnosed as suffering from PSTSS?**

I think its existance needs a bit more peer review before it can be diagnosed in anyone.

**

-are substantial benefits in the offing for sufferers of PSTSS?
-who is starting the class action lawsuit?
PSTSS-pass it on! **

I’m sure there are less than qualified folks who wold be glad to do just that.

[evilhanz]

Here’s a link to the Boston Globe story that has been causing a ruckus: Theory links slavery, stress disorder - Proponents make for a new diagnosis

some relevant passages:

Mims, Reid, and Larry Higginbottom, another black social worker, recently taught a symposium at the Simmons Graduate School of Social Work and are writing a book about what they call ‘‘post-traumatic slavery disorder’’ - a derivative of post-traumatic stress disorder. They are holding workshops to propose to fellow professionals that drug abuse, broken families, crime, and low educational attainment in segments of the black community can be directly linked to the trauma of slavery, and that ‘‘black people as a whole are suffering from PTSD,’’ Mims said.

These Boston clinicians were not the first to note the lingering psychological effects of slavery. Harvard University psychiatrist Alvin F. Poussaint wrote in 2000 about ‘‘posttraumatic slavery syndrome,’’ calling it ‘‘a physiological risk for black people that is virtually unknown to white Americans.’’

… Poussaint calls the trauma associated with slavery a syndrome, not a disorder. A disorder is something much more specific, while ‘‘the trauma of slavery goes across all diagnoses and no diagnoses,’’ Poussaint said in an interview.

‘‘There is a background anxiety there for black people, like a background noise affecting their day-to-day operations in the world,’’ he said. ‘‘Slavery was profoundly traumatic for black people and we’re not over it yet.’’

Poussaint would like to see the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association set up committees to study the mental health implications of racism, but he said these ideas produce ‘‘a lot of rolling of the eyes,’’ among other mental health professionals.

They’re rolling their eyes … for now. IMHO, this is nothing more than an attempt to manufacture a legal basis for slavery reparations.

[Billdo]

Trying to keep this in GQ, have any of the studies attempted to distinguish between the incidence of the purported syndrome in persons of African ancestry who were descended from slaves from those of African ancestry who were not. Likewise, were any studies made of persons of non-African ancestry who were descended from slaves and those who were not.

If not, it seems to me that the purported syndrome could be renamed “being black.”

[Dinsdale]

One of Chicago aldercreature Dorothy Tillman’s favorites.
Most recently crowed about when the city council enacted slavery disclosure requirements for firms desiring to do business with the city.

[manhattan]

*Originally posted by Padeye *
I’m astonished this hasn’t been booted to great debates by the mods. I have some opinions for sure but I’ll keep them in another forum.

Sorry, we were away. Thanks for bringing it back on a factual tract.

Others, please continue to follow the example set here. Opinions, etc. are for another forum. GQ is for the facts.

[Hail_Ants]

Considering that most tribes in colonial Africa practiced inter-tribe slavery I think it would get a little complicated trying to fix blame for it even if it did exist (which it, of course, doesn’t).

[coffeecat]

*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance *
**I’ll be damned.

Hey, I’m a Jew. Can I get reparations from Egypt? **

You already did. You mean you pissed it away already?

[Jonathan_Chance]

That wasn’t reparations…that was blackmail.

Different thing entirely.

[Apollyon]

*Originally posted by Padeye *

Originally posted by ralph124c:
-can mental conditions persist for generations AFTER the incient ofinjury?

**This is pretty much the same as Lamarkian inheritance which for most folks is off the scale on the BS meter though it does have its proponents.
**

I don’t think you have to invoke Lamark to consider this question from the OP.

Studies have suggested that the children of abusive parents are more likely to be abusive to their own children – often referred to as a “cycle of violence”.
(Example site cite olny)

I’m not sure if this should be considered a mental condition (OP) or social conditioning… but the analogy may be valid in either case.