FRIDAY: What kind of "illness" was mental illness?

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025

Rep. Omar gets to respond: What manner of "illness" was mental illness? We place our question in a past tense because, when we consult the leading authority, it almost sounds like that familiar locution may be going away:

Mental disorder

"Mental Illness" redirects here. For the album by Aimee Mann, see Mental Illness (album).

A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is also characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior, often in a social context. Such disturbances may occur as single episodes, may be persistent, or may be relapsing–remitting. There are many different types of mental disorders, with signs and symptoms that vary widely between specific disorders. A mental disorder is one aspect of mental health.

The causes of mental disorders are often unclear. Theories incorporate findings from a range of fields. Disorders may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain...

In 2019, common mental disorders around the globe include: depression, which affects about 264 million people; dementia, which affects about 50 million; bipolar disorder, which affects about 45 million; and schizophrenia and other psychoses, which affect about 20 million people. Neurodevelopmental disorders include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and intellectual disability, of which onset occurs early in the developmental period. Stigma and discrimination can add to the suffering and disability associated with mental disorders, leading to various social movements attempting to increase understanding and challenge social exclusion.

Definition

The definition and classification of mental disorders are key issues for researchers as well as service providers and those who may be diagnosed. For a mental state to be classified as a disorder, it generally needs to cause dysfunction. Most international clinical documents use the term mental "disorder," while "illness" is also common. It has been noted that using the term "mental" (i.e., of the mind) is not necessarily meant to imply separateness from the brain or body.

Interesting! The leading authority presents its lengthy discussion under the heading of "mental disorder," not under "mental illness." We also call your attention to this:

Most international clinical documents use the term mental "disorder," while "illness" is also common.

It almost sounds like the more familiar, traditional term is perhaps being phased out. We note the desire to avoid "stigma" in the discussion of such life-draining disorders. Beyond that, we note the fact these disorders "may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain."

It has been noted that using the term "mental" (i.e., of the mind) is not necessarily meant to imply separateness from the brain or body.

It sounds like a so-called "mental" disorder may be a physiological disorder. As we've noted elsewhere, it seems to be generally assumed that antisocial personality disorder (ASPD; colloquially, sociopathy) can be, at least in part, inherited from a parent.

Or something like that. We're forced to be the ones to say these things because the imitations of journalists and academics with whom we're saddled have all agreed—cowering in a corner as they do—that topics like these must never be reported or discussed, even as our failing society keeps sliding toward the sea.

According to various sources, something like 5-6 percent of adult males can be diagnosed with ASPD—can be diagnosed as (colloquial) "sociopaths." What goes on in the mind of a person who may even have entered the world predisposed to such a moral or intellectual affliction?

Why do they behave in the antisocial ways they tend to manifest? What leads them to behave in ways you yourself might more often avoid?

We don't know how to answer those questions, and the people you're told to regard as journalists aren't ever going to ask them. That said, when Rep. Ilhan Omar ran into some poisonous antisocial behavior this week, she penned a guest essay for the New York Times, chronicling her reactions. 

Headline included, here's the way her essay begins in today's print editions:

Ilhan Omar: Trump Knows He’s Failing. Cue the Bigotry.

On Tuesday, President Trump called my friends and me “garbage.”

This comment was only the latest in a series of remarks and Truth Social posts in which the president has demonized and spread conspiracy theories about the Somali community and about me personally. For years, the president has spewed hate speech in an effort to gin up contempt against me. He reaches for the same playbook of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and division again and again. At one 2019 rally, he egged on his crowd until it chanted “send her back” when he said my name.

Mr. Trump denigrates not only Somalis but so many other immigrants, too, particularly those who are Black and Muslim. While he has consistently tried to vilify newcomers, we will not let him silence us. He fails to realize how deeply Somali Americans love this country. We are doctors, teachers, police officers and elected leaders working to make our country better. Over 90 percent of Somalis living in my home state, Minnesota, are American citizens by birth or naturalization. Some even supported Mr. Trump at the ballot box.

“I don’t want them in our country,” the president said this week. “Let them go back to where they came from.”

Somali Americans remain resilient against the onslaught of attacks from the White House. But I am deeply worried about the ramifications of these tirades...

For reasons which should be obvious, Rep. Omar should be worried about the possible ramifications of those poisonous assaults. Over here in the emptier realms of our unimpressive Blue America, Joe and Mika and other such players were too busy getting lost in the fog of the latest chase to discuss what the president said and did, right there in the White House, on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

In our opinion, Rep. Omar might have better luck dealing with the disorder which came crashing down on Somali-American heads—by extension, on all American heads—if she placed less stress on our Blue American bombs—on instant assertions of bigotry, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and the like. 

It seems that Rep. Omar disagrees with that view, and her view may be more right. That said, our own Blue American corporate stars largely agreed this week to let this poisonous conduct go unreported and undiscussed. 

In recent months, we've suggested that we Blues should teach ourselves to "pity the child" as we try to deal with the effects of the storm of "mental illness" which almost surely helped occasion these dangerous outbursts. We've suggested that we "pity the child" as we look for the most productive ways to restrain the pathologies of the powerful, disordered adult.

There's much, much more to say about the sounds of silence which greeted the president's outbursts. For today, we compliment the New York Times for its forthright reporting about what the president did, and for the fact that it published Rep. Omar's reaction.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but we Blues have amazingly little self-awareness, even at this perilous point in time. As every sane person must know by now, our cluelessness helped send the tragically disordered person in question to the Oval Office—not once, but two separate times. 

Will we Blues ever get over ourselves? Will we ever come to see ourselves as we actually are? Will we ever come to see our behavior as it actually is?

Rep. Omar ran into an apparent "illness" once again this week. On the corporate messaging level, the children were busy getting lost in the fog of the chase. Utter incompetence looks like that—and of course, almost surely, the salaries are too damn high and the livin' is way too easy. 

There's much more to be said about (clinical) "mental disorder." For better or worse, the people who get sold to us as journalists are never going to do it.