I read in the news yesterday that an academic from Toronto named CW Mills died, I only remember him because I read about him when I was studying sociology and that he had a similar name to a well known late sociologist.
The guy who just died was a pioneer of critical race studies and the other well known sociologist was C Wright Mills author of “The sociological Imagination”.
Both academics remind me of a thought I had before about paranoia and persecution complexes, one because he had a theory that liberalism was fundamentally racist, and the other just because of the concept of a sociological imagination.
My thought was that some of the perspectives in sociology are in a way paranoid and persecution complexes because they posit that certain structures like patriarchy, liberalism, colonialism, hegemony etc. operate systemically but whether or not they are real or not could be denied by opponents, and often are.
When I was sick in the head and studying sociology I had this idea brewing that my sz was caused by some sort of systemic issue, and the the manifestation of disease was a natural defense mechanism of producing a paranoid/ persecutory complex. Kind of like a general response to stimuli that is not focused and ineffective. Kind of like how fear of the dark makes you think about every possible thing that could be lurking there, even impossible things.
There’s a little bit more I remember but that’s the basic point I’m trying to make.