It is so pernicious and subtle that it seems a part of nature itself: the pathologising of the object by the self-deceiving subject.
To pathologise is to treat every manifestation of an object as evidence of that object’s inherent tendency to manifest as that object.
To see everything a traumatised woman does as proof of her trauma.
To take everything a Republican says as just the sort of thing a Republican would say.
To point to everything in your shitty life as an example of what makes life shitty.
To undermine a mental patient’s confidence in their own judgements by reminding them that their mental illness has skewed their cognition.
BEATING THE POISONED DRUM 