"If an explanation contradicts the sense of who a person is, it can be damaging. There should be more attention paid to the way people describe their own distress."

"If an explanation contradicts the sense of who a person is, it can be damaging. There should be more attention paid to the way people describe their own distress."

This comes from a September 18, 2022 LA Times interview of writer  Rachel Aviv [Mental illness, as told by the patients].  The book features four people with mental health problems, talking from their own experience.  

There are lots of interesting thoughts, but this one grabbed my attention most.

I couldn't help but think about gay and transgender people having other people trying to deny their stories.  And it hit me.

People who react so strongly to LGBTQ folks are trying to deny evidence that contradicts their own world view.  Making LGBTQ people disappear, helps keep their own world view whole.  

Of course, that goes for lots of other attempts to censor, oppress, and otherwise hide that which contradicts people's dogma.  In these four tales, people with mental health problems are disbelieved because people want to believe that science can cure them or perhaps to deny the possibility they may be or become mentally ill without a way out.  Defund the Police disrupts peoples belief that police will protect them.   The Catholic Church denying Galileo's proof that the earth goes around the sun.  Everyone who ridiculed Darwin because Evolution was at odds with the story of creation.  

Of course, though maybe not obvious,  the first part of the quote refers not only to the patient (in this case) but also to the person who denies the patient's story.  

People say there may be no reasoning possible with hardcore Trump supporters.  But perhaps simply asking them to explain their world view might make their grievances understandable.  You needn't believe it,  you probably can't alter it.  But listening is the first step.  For them and for us.  I know a serious conversation for an hour might help a true believer see this "liberal" as not embodying their stereotypes.  

That's it.  That's all I have to say.