Follow The Leader
This blog post contains wording about suicide that some people may find triggering. If your need is urgent, please call 999. If you need support, please call 111, or The Samaritans freephone helpline on 116 123. Stay safe.
The Game
Follow the Leader. This is how it goes. A lady lies face down in a ditch. She is covered in blood. A swarm of fly’s circle around her. She cries for help. A businesswoman, who is late for a meeting, strides past. She sees the lady in the ditch, but she walks on by. No one will notice. A banker follows behind. He sees the woman in the ditch. He has a wife to get home to. Mr banker spots the woman who walked on by in front. She did it. I’m OK to do it too. He picks up a pace and marches on.
Tens, hundreds, and then thousands follow suit and walk on by. They ignore the woman in the ditch. They are OK to leave her where she is. There is safety in numbers.
Ten years pass. One full decade. This poor woman is still in the ditch. People continue to pass her by. It is permissible behaviour. So many people have ignored her, that it is acceptable for everyone else to do the same. The stranger in front grants permission to the person behind to walk by. Like sheep, they follow.
The Woman’s Reality
The system has failed her. Fifteen NHS Trusts, nine General Practitioners, four Mental Health Teams, three Crisis teams, and two local authorities have walked on by, and left her in the ditch. The specifics are shocking. Fifty plus Medical Consultants have pushed her away and closed her case. There is nothing wrong with you, stupid woman. Stop banging on about your face and live with the pain. Nine GP Practices have buckled. We can’t do anything- Sorry. If all of these Consultants are ignoring you, then it is safe for us to turn a blind eye, too. They stay quiet and do nothing.
Mental Health Services
The lady reaches out to the mental health services for support. She makes a loud cry for their help.
They follow suit. We are not going to stick our head above the parapet and get shot. If all of these NHS Trusts have washed their hands of you- we can get away with it too. We don’t want to be seen to be supportive. The mental health team tells her that she needs ‘to reframe the way she sees being in the ditch.’ They throw a blanket over her and walk on.
Social Services
The lady has been open to Social Services since 2008. Several passers-by have raised causes of concern to Public Protection about this lady in need. No one from social services bothered to see if she was OK. A new Local Authority have taken over her case. They have assessed her as having care needs under The Care Act 2014. They know how many NHS Trusts have knocked her back. Two social workers go down to the ditch one day. ‘You’re doing just fine in the ditch, alone,’ they say. You don’t need our help anymore. You can do it on your own.’ They withdraw their support and close her case.
This mass abandonment hurts her so deeply. She cannot endure the pain anymore. The lady feels that the only way out is to be dead. She fights the urges to end her life. She does not want to commit an act of murder. One day, she manages to limp to the local Accident and Emergency department to speak to the Crisis teams. She tells them that being in the ditch, is making her want to end her life. The lady tells explains that she cannot stay in the ditch any longer.
The Crisis team look in her notes and see the long line of NHS Trusts and services who have ignored her. They don’t want to go against the grain. They tell her that she should go back to the ditch and ‘distract herself.’
It’s an endemic game of Chinese Whispers.
Thomas Kuhn on Paradigm Shift
Thomas Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science. His book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was published in 1962. It is about the history of science, and it was very influential in academic circles. It introduced the term paradigm shift, which has since become an English-language idiom. I discovered this book in my final year at university, during a course that I took in Comparative Epistemologies. This book is one of the few things that I still remember from my degree. It caused me to think in a different way about a lot of things.
‘Thomas Kuhn argued that science does not evolve gradually towards truth.’[1] ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions argues that the development of science is driven by adherence to what Kuhn called paradigms.’[2] A paradigm is a basic framework of assumptions and principals, from which members of the community agree upon. It is a set of norms that tell scientists how to act and behave.
Scientists accept the dominant paradigm until anomalies are thrown up, when scientists will then begin to question the basis of the paradigm. New theories emerge, which challenge the dominant paradigm and eventually, one of these theories is accepted as the new paradigm.
Thomas Kuhn’s Series of Phases
Thomas Kuhn states that discoveries of scientific theories are based upon a series of phases.
- Phase 1- Pre-Science; Scientists explore different theories. They have not yet arrived at a model to follow.
- Phase 2- Normal Science; Scientists work together on a common question. They carry out their work on the basis of a paradigm. In order to arrive at the paradigm, a number of assumptions are explored, and when there is enough agreement between them, a paradigm is formed.
- Phase 3-Crisis Phase; Anomalies and irregularities arrive and need to be solved. Abnormalities keep piling on, and this is when a paradigm shift begins. The crisis phase is when scientists question the model and its feasibility. It then enters a new stage where the entire paradigm on which everything is based needs to be shifted to a new one.
- Phase 4- Revolutionary Phase; A completely new paradigm is formulated, which is not the result of the old paradigm. It is formulated with the help of new observations, and it draws on new perspectives.
Conclusion
My case is not scientific theory- I know that -but I do draw a parallel between Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts and my story. The existing paradigm is based on an agreement between many statutory bodies, that ignoring me and treating me badly is acceptable behaviour.
Anomalies and irregularities have been showing up with this paradigm for a long time. It has reached crisis point. I now have six entries of suicidal ideation on my medical records. I also have an active request for an accompanied suicide, pending with Dignitas in Switzerland, which I have made on the grounds of uncontrollable and unbearable pain. It is time for people to question the feasibility of the existing paradigm. It’s foundation is flawed, and is based on hurtful behaviour, which is causing me considerable harm. We need a paradigm shift.
In order for a paradigm shift to occur, it will take a courageous person, who will stop and see this lady. They will help her out of the ditch and accompany her to a hospital, where she can receive medical treatment for her facial pain, and support to help her heal from the trauma. If this person shows her kindness, others will follow. The old paradigm of neglect will be replaced with a new model of care and compassion.
This lady will not survive being in the ditch much longer. It is time for somebody to stop and give this lady a hand, so that love and healing can replace this toxic culture of neglect and duplicity.
Back To The Lady
The lady waits in the ditch. She clings to the burning embers of her late mother’s legacy, that by the laws of averages, nothing can stay at an extreme for ever. Her father used to read her fairy tales when she was a child. She thinks about those stories; how a dawn of love and humanity emerges at the end of a dark tale. Her story has been dark. Over the last decade, she has seen the worst of people, but she has clung to universal truths, maybe cliches, that good overcomes bad in the end.
The lady lies awake at night and asks herself the same questions. When will things balance out? When will compassion and humanity appear, and how much longer does she have to wait for someone to help her out of the ditch?
Recommended Articles
Thomas Kuhn and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas Kuhn: The Man who Changed the Way the World Looked at Science
Abuse of Power; The psychology behind Abusive Relationships.
Foot Notes
[1] Mcleod Saul PhD; Thomas Kuhn; Paradigm Shift. June, 2023- Simply Psychology.
[2] Sack, Harold, Thomas Kuhn and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, July 2021, SciHi Blog; Daily Blog on Science, Tech and Art in History.