Ask post: Does insanity exist outside the subjective viewpoint of a given society?

Appropriate (and expected) that Szasz would come up. Before my bipolar awesomeness first manifested itself (typically, this often happens mid-late 20s for some reason), I was dating a psychiatrist's daughter & reading a lot of Szasz & Foucault & trying to argue the "it's all just an arbitrary classification of people who happen to think differently to the norm" as if the whole concept of insanity / mental illness was just a perverse way that society chooses to persecute... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by UbuRoivas at 4:38 PM on October 2, 2008

Ask post: Power play

It's a funny thing about power plays: they come back to bite people, especially if you are in an incestuous industry. I've had the pleasure of seeing several previous superiors' resumes held up for review. It gets considerable attention when you're the insider and you say "on the one hand, he dresses nicely; on the other, he is terminally clue-impaired and makes up for that by passing snide comments on productive people". If you have the patience this tactic is much more satisfying... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jet_silver at 8:52 PM on October 15, 2007

Ask post: Marriott ruined our wedding night!

My first response is a question: thinking about it rationally and with a clear head (understandably difficult), what would be a reasonable way for Marriott to make this right? There's no turning back time, there's no getting the shuttles to retrospectively appear, and there's no way to fix the brunch not happening; it's hard, but you need to come up with a reasonable thing that Marriott can provide to you. I'm personally not sure that lifetime stays for free is a reasonable request -- but you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by delfuego at 9:16 AM on September 8, 2007

Ask post: Help with daughter

Just one word of caution in the form of a personal anecdote.

I had a really hard time finding a good job when I got out of college. To pay bills best I could, I worked a bunch of very low-paying jobs, mostly in retail. My parents constantly demeaned these "stopgap" jobs as being "below" me. Well, I knew that, but I still intended to do a good job on principle. They seemed to think that if they paid my bills for a few months, I'd then have time to find... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by desuetude at 2:27 PM on August 19, 2006

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