Story Collider is a story-telling series focused on science. On January nineteenth, the theme is “pathology,” and I’ll be there, telling the story of my brief career as a sociopath.
My story focuses primarily on the anticipated revisions to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the real-life impact of the categorization of sexuality by mental health professionals. In the current edition of the DSM, anyone involved in kink is potentially diagnosed with “paraphilia,” a catch-all term for any sexual attraction deemed outside normative behavior, be it necrophilia or a taste for latex. The new edition is expected to update diagnostic criteria so that kinky is not a diagnosis.
Until then, the current edition remains the guideline, as it was during my recent custody case. My interest in BDSM became the subject of a psychiatric evaluation that could have caused me to lose my children.
My story also includes the gossipy smear campaign undertaken by bloggers Dacia, Tess and Dee. When they learned that there would be a psychiatric evaluation, they filled blogs, anonymous attacks and cocktails hours with their diagnosis that I was, unquestionably, a “sociopath.” This feverish, sad drama consumed them even after the psychiatric evaluation and custody case were concluded.
Hear the full tale at Story Collider, where I’ll share the stage with great storytellers, including some of my chums from the Moth. The event is free but the house will be full, so arrive early to claim your spot; make Pacific Standard your happy hour destination.
3 comments:
You know, for the amount of times on this blog that you mention putting that whole situation behind you, you sure talk about it a lot.
A sock puppet? I don’t get many of those. Must be something about about this post . . .
To address your comment, “Penny”: I am an historian by training and a memoirist by inclination. Nothing in the past is unworthy of consideration.
That said, the gossipy smear campaign of Dacia, Tess and Dee isn’t all that distant in the past. It was undertaken at a time when I had taken my blog offline and refrained from appearing online or in public as “Jefferson.” My friends obliged my request that they also avoid discussion of me or my custody case. In my absence, Dacia, Tess and Dee enjoyed a full year of creating a straw man they could eviscerate.
And then, to their apparent surprise, I prevailed in the custody case and returned to writing as “Jefferson.” I could now tell the stories of the custody case, Dacia’s flame war, Tess’s obsession and Dee bitterness at her unrequited love. These are the stories they gave me to tell, and they are mine to tell when and how I choose.
I don’t recall writing that I had put “this whole situation” behind me, though no doubt Dacia, Tess and Dee dearly wish that I would. That’s understandable: the stories they gave me to tell are embarrassing to them now.
Well, how fortunate. I have a drawer full of odd socks, constantly and forlornly searching for their mates.
Would it be OK if I used the spares who pop up here please?
(Wish I could be there om the 19th to hear you in person, but it's a bit of a commute. :-))
Juno x
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