I have already talked about the myth of mental illness in a previous post, but there are other aspects to this issue that I failed to address earlier. In fact, I am not sure the issue can ever be settled definitively as there are so many factors to consider. But perhaps at bottom the question is about the nature of psychological suffering , a matter which has vexed the consciousness of humankind as long as people have been reflectively self aware. But what I am interested in here is how the language or discourse of mental illness affects the self understanding of people who experience mental and emotional suffering. This is not merely a question of semantics, but relates to something far more fundamental to our understanding of what it is to be human. But let me begin by restating what I said before about the concept of mental illness. First, if there is a myth of mental illness there is no doubting the reality of the mental agony which is very similar to an illness in the suffering that it causes. Second, the idea of mental illness as an affliction has an extremely ancient heritage. Indeed, the Buddha himself used the trope and he was certainly not the first to use it. Finally, severe mental illness may require medical treatment and can, in the short term at least, be effectively treated, if not cured by the judicious use of psycho-pharmaceuticals. I think all three points are fairly incontestable, though there might be some people who remain adamantly opposed in principle to the use of psycho-pharmaceuticals under any circumstances. But of the three points the first is surely the most important.
4 Comments
9/17/2014 11:42:07 pm
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Glenn Macauley
9/17/2014 11:47:21 pm
It seems I have been cut off in my prime, just at the moment Mr Szasz arrived.
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Bob Chisholm
6/10/2022 10:46:10 am
Hi Gia,
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