ABSTRACT
Debates about language often seem irrelevant to busy clinicians: mere semantics, an affectation of political correctness. However, the implications of language cannot be so readily dismissed. More than simply convenient tags or labels, the words we use define the quality and value of that which is named and deny the existence of that which is not (Daly, 1978). Much of the language that is traditionally used in the mental health arena perpetuates exclusion.
