David_Gerard comments on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas! - Less Wrong

55 Post author: D_Malik 15 May 2013 10:27PM

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Comment author: mare-of-night 12 May 2013 07:16:55PM 7 points [-]

Yes, but the operative question here isn't whether it's mental illness, it's whether it's beneficial. Similarity to harmful mental illnesses is a reason to be really careful (having a very low prior probability of anything that fits the "mental illness" category being a good thing), but it's not a knockdown argument.

If we accept psychology's rule that a mental trait is only an illness if it interferes with your life (meaning moderate to large negative effect on a person's life, as I understand it), then something being a mental illness is a knockdown argument that it is not beneficial. But in that case, you have to prove that the thing has a negative affect on the person's life before you can know that is a mental illness. (See also .)