March 17, 2022
Categorization is a useful tool. It has allowed us to draw out the branches and stems of the tree of life, helped us figure out the names of all the objects in the sky, and let us trace back the origins of languages. Categorization is a skill championed by humans - some argue that it is what separates us from the animals. Even in the Torah (Genesis 2:19-20), it is a skill that separates humanity. But giving something a name does not change its nature; categories often fail us.
We are able to place every animal in its respective species; a species being defined as a biological population which can breed and have fertile offspring. If we take that definition, a lime is the same as a grapefruit as is a pomelo. Taking this definition into the mammalian world, are we required to say that grizzly bears and polar bears are the same species? Probably not. And the same ambiguity occurs in astronomy when classifying planets (RIP Pluto) or the exact composition of an exotic star, as well as in language classification.
These misclassifications can have adverse effects. Assuming a lime as equivalent to a lemon will give you scurvy. Replacing an orange with grapefruit will make your birth control, hormonal medication, Adderall, SSRIs, antibiotics, statins, Viagra, Tylenol, codeine, methadone, blood thinners, and Allegra fail. Just because we thought the Cascadian subduction zone to be safe did not make it so, and as a result, buildings in the Washington-Oregon-Vancouver area are unprepared for a large earthquake.
These scientific misclassifications, though harmful, are not the intended topic. Rather, one of the most insidious issues in classification is classification of the self.
Here! Take this personality test! Find out whether you are an introvert or an extrovert with this one fun Buzzfeed quiz! You feel this feeling - you must be placed in that group! Did you know that if you bounce your leg, you have anxiety? Where are you on the political compass? What is your enneagram type?
We are constantly asked to categorize ourselves, to say where we stand in the world. The issue with this is that by this process, one boxes themselves into this category. If we are capital-D Depressed, by categorizing ourselves as a person with it, we incorporate it into our identities. Personally, I have, and still do, experience anxiety in some social situations. If I were to view it as an essential quality for myself, I would not have been able to work on it; it is much harder to change the self. But, by viewing it as something which I experience, it becomes much easier to view as changeable. These are extreme examples, and there are still categories in the DSM where this frame of thought is not entirely helpful, such as for those with schizophrenia. But even schizophrenia is affected by the cultural context surrounding it - for example, those in Zanzibar with schizophrenia have much improved health outcomes than those in the United States, owing in part to the stigma surrounding schizophrenia in the West. Placing oneself, or others, into a category restricts their actions.
This is just as true for qualities not found in the DSM. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? It does not matter - there a large amount of overlap between the two groups. But, by pigeonholing yourself into one of the two, you make yourself so, as introversion and extroversion are linked to self-esteem, and you can improve your self-esteem. By viewing oneself as introverted, one may reduce their self-esteem, leading to more introversion; if one wants to change, the cycle must be broken. Categorization reinforces the traits found in those categories.
The creator of Buzzfeed wrote a paper on how this use of categorization can be exploited, leading to one of my favorite articles on the internet. But what do we do about this - how do we resist categorizing ourselves given that our brains naturally tend toward pattern recognition? Be careful; examine your beliefs; ask whether an action is actually something you would like to do and if you’d like to change it; check your biases. There’s no one-size-fit-all heuristic, but remember that a category is just place, not an all-encompassing definition, and we are free to move from place to place.
On February 27, 2022, I thought it would be a great idea to create some sort of content - writing, art, coding, etc. - every day of the next month. Luckily, the alliteration worked out. This should be the seventeenth post in the series.