Mahajoy Laufer Wants You to Think About It

Writer profile #30 in my 30 day reading challenge

Image by Here and now, unfortunately, ends my journey on Pixabay from Pixabay

For the final writer in my 30 day reading challenge, I decided to go looking for someone I had never read before. I found Mahajoy Laufer, LICSW by cruising through the trending pages on some of the tags I’m interested in.

Mahajoy writes about critical thinking, race, education, and mental health. I found reading her work forced me to exercise my own critical thinking muscles in a good way. Here are some of my favorites:

Was Psychosis Constructed to Protect Slavery?

Most of us have realized by now, that social mores have the potential to sway science. Our values create the lenses through which we interpret information, data, and experiences. The same is true with scientists. If anyone argues that science exists in a vacuum, they should also note that the vacuum is filled with dust, lint, and little pieces of cat hair.

Let’s take one drastic example. When I learned about drapetomania in social work school my mouth dropped down to my desk. If any diagnosis could scream social control, this was one…