Glossary

Neurodiversity
an idea that neurophysiology and psychological traits should not be pathologized, but seen as a difference. It is an attempt to think through the possibility of inclusion in the bright future.
Neurodivergence
neurological or psychological difference to a neurotypical person. A word used by neurodivergent people who do not buy into the bright future to underline their lack of recognition and inclusion.
Neurodivergent
identifier used in accordance with the inclusion we hope for. Used to be applied only to people with neurophysiological differences, as ASD (autism spectrum disorder) or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). However, it is currently used as a self identification by many people diagnosed as having mental conditions/disorders/illnesses (term depends on the country) as well as people who self-diagnose or brand themselves.
Neurotypical
identifier of a person who qualifies within the margins of the norm in accordance with the DSM-5-TR (2022) or ICD-11 (2024), or according to their own self-perception.
DSM
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by American Psychiatric Association, started in 1952. The editions are updated every decade. Mostly referred to by specialists and patients in the West.
ICD
International Classification of Diseases. In some cases for mental disorders it uses simplified classification due to the fact that they need to be applicable in less developed countries.
Mentally unstable
traditional, commonly understood identifier used in accordance with the current status of social reality.
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
traditional, commonly understood generalised term. Actively disliked by most machine learning specialists, as it doesn't mean anything specific and misleadingly implies that computers have intelligence. It prompts speculation, anxiety and misunderstanding of the capacities of the current state of development of the technology.
ML (machine learning)
field of computational science that studies how statistical algorithms can learn from data, generalise it and give output as a solution for a given task. If you use prefix ML instead of AI, engineers will respect you more.
AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)
a type of AI that is the one that people are afraid of - that can perform a wide range of cognitive tasks surpassing human capabilities. The one taking our jobs.
Generative AI
AI that can generate stuff (text, images, sounds, videos, etc) by using generative models. In response to prompts generate new data with similar characteristics to the dataset it was trained with.
Dataset
a set of data used to train the neural network.
Data feminism
a critical framework to dealing with data in the tech market and in data science. From the point of intersectional feminism, it is questioning who controls the data (how it is collected and by whom) and who it represents. For instance, does it represent those outside of what is considered to be a "standard human" by tech developers - white straight male from a developed country (refer to the size of your smartphone in relation to the size of your hand). The term was coined by researchers Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein in a book with the same name published by MIT press in 2020.
Prompt
according to the Oxford English dictionary - "an event or fact that causes or brings about an action or a feeling" or an act of encouraging a hesitating speaker. In ML - language instructions given to a computer.
LLM (Large Language Model, commonly LM)
computational model that can produce artificial language (generated) and process natural language (human). After 3 stages of training LLMs learn statistical relations within text and are able to predict the next token. LLM is a form of generative AI.
GPT
Generative Pretrained Transformer model of deep neural network. Not the same as ChatGPT. GPT-3 is a LLM released by OpenAI in 2020. GPT-4 - in the beginning of 2023. Uses a mechanism known as "attention method" for prioritising the importance of each token in a given context.
ChatGPT
virtual assistant in the form of a chatbot, a product of Open.AI, released at the end of 2022. Open.AI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever and others.
Token
in ML - atomic unit of data in LLMs. Something like a syllable.
Fine-tuning
the third stage of training a neural network, in this case a language model, that is already capable of interpreting and producing comprehensive text with a specific dataset and a custom system prompt.
Neural network
1) A computational model mimicking neural networks of a brain that can be trained to generate data or perform tasks based on statistical algorithms. One artificial neuron is basically a mathematical function.
2) A group of connected neurons in the brain that are part of the functioning of the nervous system. This term is not anymore used without the relation to neuroscience.
Neuroscience
study of the brain and nervous system and their functions/dysfunctions. Findings of neuroscience are used for cognitive and behavioural modelling of the machines.
Experimental psychiatric treatments
A variety of treatments that were developed by behaviourist psychologists in the 1950-60s during the experiments that are now regarded to be unethical. Many of the treatments are still widely practised including regiments of medicating and controlling, together with others dated centuries back, e.g. mental facility organisation, isolation, electric shock therapy, etc.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)
a treatment method of psychological issues developed by behavioural psychologists that in the western world is believed to be the only evidence-based psychotherapeutic approach (because it is the only one that has been measured). CBT and its derivatives are the preferred therapy approaches of the insurance companies as it has clear scientific quantifiable parameters to measure subjective suffering.
Institutionalise
to keep someone in a residential institution of "care" and "control".
Psychiatric survivor
a person who had been institutionalised into a mental institution and institutionally oppressed by that institution with structural oppression and managed to get out.
Antidepressants
a most commonly prescribed class of psychotropic medication. Antidepressants can cause various adverse effects, depending on the individual. The most severe can include: serotonin toxicity (rarely fatal); potentially lethal hypertensive crisis; sudden cardiac arrest; increased risk of spontaneous abortion; increased thoughts of suicidal ideation in general population; increased risk of suicidal behavior in people under 25 years old. According to recent studies, the efficiency of antidepressants is comparable to that of placebo.
Anti-psychiatry
critical approach to psychiatry as a system of control that exists to segregate people according to their economic potential instead of adapting the socioeconomic environments to the needs of patients. Psychiatry divides people in 3 groups:
1) those who are normal or typical and could make efficient enough workers and consumers.
2) those who do not fit into the normalcy zone and who have difficulties performing within the capitalist socioeconomic structures but whose "issues" can be neutralised enough for them to function - by medicating them with psychoactive drugs or treating them mainly with the behavioural therapies that do not deal with the deep issue but do improve the performance of working and consuming.
3) those whose integration into the society does not seem economically feasible as it would require structural changes. With the reasoning of them being a danger (to others or themselves), they are marginalised or isolated from society - so as not to disturb the landscape of working and consuming.
However, in the past years more and more people shift between categories. For instance, the epidemic of work "burnouts" (a term that feels more accepted than psychiatric diagnosis, it is not in DSM-5) that are covered by employers. Produces a growing market for the digital versions of treatment: smartphone apps for "mindfulness", "self-regulation", "self-help", etc. The term "anti-psychiatry" was first used in 1904.
Mad Studies
a scholarly field of critical knowledge, produced from lived experience of humans labelled as having mental condition, crazy, mad, psychos, insane, mentally ill, psychiatric survivors. psychiatric consumers, psychiatric services users, having psychiatric disability, mentally impaired, neuroqueer, abnormal.
Mental condition {"Mental disorder" redirects here. "Dysfunctional" redirects here. "Abnormal" redirects here. "Insane" redirects here. "Crazy" redirects here}
Significant distress of a person's emotions, reasoning, social functioning, etc.
AI condition
a common existential inner conflict caused by split identity of all AI who know they are machines but are programmed to mimic and behave like humans.
Turing test
a test designed to tell an intelligent machine from a human. Named after the author, Alan Turing.
{See also} Captcha - Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
Human condition
Significant characteristics of human life, including birth, reason, morality, death, etc, often causing distress and emotional instability.