Il 04 nov 2016 21:29, "Gordon Joly" <gordon.joly@pobox.com> ha scritto:
>
>
> On 03/11/16 15:13, Luca Martinelli wrote:
> > Sorry for my bluntness, but... are we REALLY having this conversation?
> > We're about to question our annual summit's name after 12 editions? Is
> > it really a problem?
>
>
> Yes.
>
> I was prompted to make my plea, which I had tentatively made in the past
> few weeks, after hearing a radio programme about the terms used to
> describe (the symptoms of) mental ill health.
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080t8nq
>
> ***
> How often do you use words like mad, crazy and schizophrenic in every
> day conversation? What impact does this have on people with mental
> health problems? To discuss this we brought together Niall Boyce, the
> Editor of the Lancet Psychiatry, linguist Dr Zsofia Demjen, and Clive
> Buckenham, an ambassador for Time to Change.
> ***
>
> Another term that is also misused is "schizophrenic" (not a split
> personality, but a serious mental illness). Which by a similar logic is
> OK since it has been used a very large number of times in conversation?
>
> OCD is also used incorrectly.
>
> Wikimania correctly concerns itself with the diversity of participants.
> Sexual orientation, gender, physical disability and mental illness and
> more. My assertion is that we should change the name, even if is it just
> a minority who feel that is not correct and proper (in the year 2016).
> Many terms used in the past are now not considered appropriate.
>
> Gordo
>
> P.S. I was at Frankfurt, for the first Wikimania Conference.

I respectfully disagree. The "-mania" suffix is used in tons of non-medical situations to describe a frenzy, a buzz about something, it's a well established metaphor. Think of "Beatlesmania": nobody will think of it as a *real* disease, though some old-fashioned columnist would have thought it to be so.

I'll give you another example: a famous journalist, back in the days, wrote an op-ed to criticize football fans, comparing their "mania" to typhoid fever. Guess what term we use to describe football fans in Italy? "Tifosi", which can be loosely translated as "sick from typhus". Everybody uses that word, virtually nobody knows the backstory - but AFAIK nobody underestimated the threat of endemic illnesses in Italy because of that.

I get your point in being respectful towards people who suffer of diseases, but my humble opinion is that this discussion won't conclude anything, and on a lesser level that there is no compelling reason why we should change. Thus, my disillusioned mail.