Saturday, April 27, 2019

Self-Harm Versus the Greater Good: Greta Thunberg and Child Activism - Quillette

Self-Harm Versus the Greater Good: Greta Thunberg and Child Activism - Quillette
"When Greta Thunberg was 11 years old, she went two months without eating. 
At least, that is what a recent family memoir asks us to believe.
Her heart rate and blood pressure showed signs of starvation, and she stopped speaking to anyone but her parents and younger sister, Beata.
After years of depression, eating disorders, and anxiety attacks, she was eventually diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, high-functioning autism, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). 
She also suffers from selective mutism, a disorder related to severe anxiety which can render her unable to speak to anyone outside her closest family.
When she wants to tell a climate researcher that she is planning a school strike to save the environment, she speaks through her father.
...This is a family struggling to cope with the harrowing experience of raising severely dysfunctional children, and the passages detailing the parents’ anxiety and desperation can be upsetting to read. 
...Greta was recently named ”Woman of the Year” by a Swedish newspaper.
But she is not a woman, she is a child.
It is time we stopped to ask if we are using her, failing her, and even sacrificing her, for what we perceive to be a greater good."...
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