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Home / Thoughts / The Votary

The Votary

Written by Sean on Friday, July 14, 2006

Someone pointed me to an interesting and recent blog entry. The blogger obviously discusses devotees, but has opted not to use that term, or any of the other somewhat accepted terms. It’s interesting how some people come across our "thing" quite unexpectedly, and even more interesting to see their reaction.

In this case, the writer realised that she knew someone who is a devotee! Very good. There are more of them "out there" than might first be perceived. I say "them", as I’m not a devotee.

Which brings me to the next point. The writer said:

What I’m thinking about isn’t sensational. Just interesting.I found a syndrome in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) that got me thinking. I don’t want to get specific as to what it’s called, and I have to use different terms to describe it, because if you go look for it, most of what you’ll find out there describes the extreme cases, and naturally, it can get pretty sensational.

The syndrome has three levels. The case that interests me is mild, at the lowest of the three levels. There’s a name for people at that lowest level. I’ve been trying to find a good alias, and I’ve decided to use "The Votary", a term that implies committment and devotion.

So, she implies that our "thing" is pretty sensational. I guess it can be. That is, she refers to some of the information floating on the internet about devotees, wannabes, etc, saying it’s mostly sensationalism. I’m glad she’s not after the "wow" effect.

It’s hard to know exactly what the writer wrote, as she’s very careful not to give details, but I’ll assume that at least two of the three levels are "devotees" and "wannabes". The thing is, wannabes (transabled, BIID, etc) isn’t another level of devoteeism.

Sure, they are in the same "familly" of things, but they are not variations or level of the same thing. I’m not a devotee, I’m transabled.

I further doubt that devotees would actually be included in the DSM-IV, although I could be wrong. I think it’s not a fait accompli that even BIID is included at this point. But that’s another story!

So, all in all, I find it interesting that a "civilian" (as in, someone that doesn’t have a primary interest to the topic by either having a significant impairment or being a devotee and/or wannabe) would make a post on that topic. Not such a bad thing that the topic gets discussed more, even if there are misconceptions (which is only natural all things considered).

Sooo, cheers, and thanks for posting.

P.S. I have made an assumption that the original writer doesn’t have a significant impairment, despite a mention of some nerve damage. Apologies if my assumption was ill founded, please don’t hesitate to correct me :)

[tags]Blog, Devotees, Transabled, BIID, DSM-IV, Sensationalism[/tags]