Spiritual,

I think that society is trying to give more attention to the psychological wounds of war. But it still has to get a better handle on the treatment of these psychological wounds.

As well as the psycological wounds that are created in childhood abuse or even neglect. And I am sure that in the past people who suffer mental illness have been very misunderstood and even labeled inappropriately.

I found this thread to be very interesting Dragon, thank you for pointing it out.
It did bring some interesting thoughts to light.

Though I did finally understand what Paulo was trying to say, I still felt while he did see that some individuals escape through giving into one's mental condition and simply give up. I wanted to add that often that condition is because of some denial presented to these individuals which results in sometimes life long self denial. And that this state of mind can occur without an individual truely recoginizing the reason for their own self denial.

I myself try to think beyond labels and I try to understand more than just a label. As all people are unique I don't think that they all express the same exact reaction to life conditions. But I truely try to understand others as unique and as they express thier own condition, the actual degree of that condition will vary because they are unique.

When the Manual for the guidelines or traits of different psychological conditions was created for consideration, it was a beginning of recognizing that humans do suffer from different psycological conditions. So it is a mere guideline that groups certain common traits displayed by groups of individuals. It is a resourse for those who choose to try to treat or understand these various groups of individuals. I do not feel that it was meant to label groups of people, instead, it was ment to group these individuals together to see what can be done to help them. And as a manual or source of study, it does change as these groups are studied and more is understood about them. So, it is not about being labeled, it is about being regonized and studied and a willingness to understand WHY, HOW, AND HOW TO BEST TREAT.

As long as I can remember, I have been one to ask WHY. And I am not alone because there is a manual where others have asked the same question and will continue to do so. Some of the known conditions are still fairly new and there is much to be learned about these conditions and why they exist. It is an effort to try to bring a better understanding to what has been very misunderstood about human psychie. And it is only a beginning and should be continued to be a source of study.

Paulo has written some observations, but these observations are his individual opinion based on his own life experience. So we have something to consider and discuss. Did he see it all? Ofcourse he didn't see it all, he did however recognize some human behavioral tendencies, and he questioned them. And by his question we are drawn to observe more carefully and not only see what he has observed but to again ask WHY.

I am sure there will be continued debate on exactly what madness is as long as there are humans. And as long as we continue to observe it and question it and study it, we may gain in finding answers to resolve some of these troubling conditions within the human psychie.

Open Eyes