Model Citizen: A Piece of Kate
Katherine Raue is a fellow blogwriter, she is a friend. Currently, she is in my opinion being ‘improperly detained’ in Rangipapa, an inpatient service that caters mainly for the needs of women in treatment programmes aimed at rehabilitation.
We continue. Understanding how an ‘over-valued idea’ is meant in the context of the Tidal Model isn’t quite a piece of Kate. Perhaps it’s worth keeping in mind here Koffka’s reflections: “It is more correct to say that the whole is something else than the sum of its parts, because summing up is a meaningless procedure, whereas the whole-part relationship is meaningful.”
To me, this whole-part relationship aspect of Kate’s life is given significance and meaning when we recognise that her friendships, her interactions and engagements are infact wider spread, so not just in Carterton where she lives but also regionally, nationally and internationally.
The Clinician’s Standard of Normality
It’s interesting to me that within the Model, any ‘standard of normality being used to evaluate a person belongs to the individual clinician and is a reflection of his or her value system’. But let’s stay wide here. As I explained earlier, Tidal supposedly rejects the idea that the professionals can know more about the person, and the person’s life, than the person themselves.
In Kate’s case the rationale behind direct observations or info from other sources is as the basis for Clinical Reports to prove relevance to a mental disorder. To ordinary me, the supposition is she has no mental disorder yet! Given the context, I’m wondering if a clinician is ever tempted to write up an ill-fitting, independent-minded individual with just enough labelling to cause doubt in someone’s mind? Of course they wouldn’t! Would they?
An incisive element of the Tidal Model is that even if the clinicians don’t ask the question out loud, in the interests of advocacy perhaps, the next question ought to be, “who determines what is or is not an over-valued idea?” In Kate’s case this would be her ‘team’. I understand there are 9 members in all. 9 vs 1, now there’s some unfortunate odds!
Definition: An Over-valued idea
For our understanding, the definition of an over-valued idea within the context of the Tidal Model is “where a person has a firm, extreme conviction based upon personal experience. It is one that is not greatly appreciated by the majority of the population, or some subculture of the population …” Still with me?
Let me let you think about that. That’s right! ALL of us at some time, could technically be considered to have an over-valued idea though in general it’s only seen as a problem when it dominates a person’s life. I’ll let all you enthusiasts, passionate believers in whatever-you-believe-in, activists think about that some more! A word of tongue-in cheek advice, stay away from Rangipapa.
In Kate’s case, Health Professionals at Rangipapa will have three main considerations: Is hers an ‘abnormal’ state of mind? Is she a serious danger to the health or safety of the patients or others? And finally, has there been a serious reduction in her capacity to take care of herself? In a heads up for next time, we’ll look at those things and explore some characteristics of delusions.
RELATED POSTS
1. A Twist of Kate: The Castaway 2. Throwing Out the Lifelines 3. An Anchor in the Social World 4. Rights of Passage 5. Katherine 6. Ships in the Night 7. Alone Alone All All Alone 8. Systems that take the Kate 9. Model Citizen: A Piece of Kate
