Pathologizing the Mundane (Series 6, Ep 2)
The End of the Bad Day
Series: Semantic Decay
Episode 2: Pathologizing the Mundane
The End of the Bad Day
We have completely forgotten how to just have a bad day.
If you wake up feeling completely drained and decide to stare at the ceiling for an extra hour, you aren’t just tired; you are “dissociating.” If a huge presentation at work makes your stomach turn and your palms sweat, you don’t just have stage fright; you are experiencing “acute trauma.” If your mood shifts because the weather turned gray or you didn’t sleep well, you aren’t just moody; you are “cycling.”
Lately, human behavior is being viewed through a medical lens. Everyday fluctuations of the human heart are being treated as symptoms of a hidden disorder. We have created a culture where feeling anything other than a flat, optimized baseline of baseline happiness is treated as a medical emergency. By pathologizing the mundane, we are turning the normal, messy experience of being alive into a series of illnesses that need to be cured.
