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alexandra_k said:
Hey. I think your criticisms about the current state of knowledge are fair but... I do think that there are some clinicians and researchers who do care, very much, about these issues.

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Some.

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> "they" do not seem to know what causes mental illness; they do not really even know what "it" is.

That is right. We don't know a great deal...A lot of research funding goes to investigating the causes of mental illness.

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"We" don't know a great deal? A lot of research? Yes, indeed.

I think I know quite a bit about it (at the risk of seeming, well, what? Grandiose?). Think of Harlow's monkeys...

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> Why are medications prescribed only to suppress the symptoms?

Because at present... Those are the best (most effective) medications that we have got.

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I said suppress.

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> Why do mental health professionals (by and large) seem not to wonder about the content of the hallucinations?

Because that seems to be irrelevant with respect to the current biological treatments.

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Indeed. To them. Not to me.
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> So, I see a lot of mental health treatment today as aimed to cover things up rather than to reveal.

Yeah. One notion is that... The person is distressed by their delusions / hallucinations and so if the medication stops them having delusions / hallucinations then we have fixed them. Similarly if a person is distressed by their runny nose and eyes and sore throat we give them anti-biotics and watch them get better. Oftentimes... We don't need to know precisely what the infectious agent is UNLESS the medication doesn't provide some relief.

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SOME relief? Don't you want more than that? My impression from observing a number of people on these medications (including myself) is that they are much less effective than their advocates claim.

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They are the concerns of others, too. You might find some solace with certain members of the anti-psychiatry movement who encourage us to understand mental disorder as something that is largely a response to a sick society...

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Are they not? Have you observed our society recently? Compare to... Harlow's monkeys. Or, maybe less (but significantly) stressed monkeys.

Members of the anti-psychiatry movement... do you have any idea how lonely it is out here?