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Thanks Ronal and Everyone for this dialogue. In anthropology we talk about the "Sapir-Whorf (a couple of linguistic anthropologists who made an official theory out of what most of us know, anyway) Theory," which states, "Language shapes perception." We have tested this in our and other disciplines by experimenting with name-calling. We would first tell the volunteer that s/he would be called names or degraded, and get his/her persmission to do so. So, the volunteer knew exactly what we were going to do, and that it was just an experiment. Even so, s/he would lose muscle strength, blush, increase heartbeat, blood pressure, etc., etc., etc. in the experiment. Thus, what we're talking about is far from theory. It's reality. Name it, own it. Something else: Not that naming is always bad. We look for names for things, don't we? Before my wife was diagnosed, amazingly, nobody could give her a name for what she had. It wasn't until she saw Dr. Lieberman, and he said, "Honey, you have Parkinson's disease," that she said, "That's what I thought," and she started dealing with it. Scott >===== Original Message From Parkinson's Information Exchange Network <[log in to unmask]> ===== >Hello >Iwish to quote A note from DR Jill You are not your disease I so often hear >patients take ownership of their Parkinsons diseaseby saying My Parkinsons >disease is bothering me How often have I heard doctors and nurses refer to >people as Parkies >In Navajo culture the y believethat words are reality,the words I say are >partly reponsible for giving the patientParkinsons disease This is an >important message.We all have to be careful as doctors or nurses,practioners >and patients not to define or label others or ourselves by a disease.If we >do this then the disease and its symptons become our focus We risk losing >the realfocus of what we are.Eg Iam an accoutant with a wife and children a >man who koves music reading an has a keen sense of humour and that I am not >a Parkie > >Ronal Rodrigues Scott E. Antes Department of Anthropology Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn