Illness as identity politics

Contemporary therapy culture often recasts clinical conditions as identity categories and moral claims, turning degrees of psychological suffering into markers of belonging and virtue rather than distinct clinical states. That recasting flattens severity, complicates resource allocation and policy (e.g., coercive treatment vs supported decision‑making), and shifts public conversation from cause/treatment to status and moral performance. — If mental‑health language functions as identity politics, then policy, clinical practice, and public debate will be distorted — affecting disability rights, care triage, campus governance, and stigma‑reduction efforts.