I submit that truth is largely with Thomas Szasz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szasz
and others who have suggested that there is no such thing as "mental illness." That is, the "medicalized" idea of mental illness as it is usually presented to us. Our
symptoms exist and are certainly real. But what are they caused by? "Chemical imbalances in the brain" (for which there never has been any proof -- and what
causes such imbalances as may exist?) or originated by viruses carried by cats infecting young victims, as Fuller Torrey has proposed on the basis of some statistical studies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Fuller_Torrey
What then
does cause our symptoms? The dominant "medical" model seems to suggest that there is a group of mentally ill people (us) and the rest of society is "well." We are quite separate from "them." But -- look around you. Do you read or watch the news? Do you see a distinctly "well" society around you? Do you see great numbers of the political leaders of this country (and other countries) as displaying distinct qualities of mental soundness or maturity? If you do, have you been paying attention?
Is this a society in which help is given to those who need it, or is it one in which "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer"? Are the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies that provide so many pills to "help" the mentally ill making great amounts of money compared to most other people? And the same for the leaders of very many large corporations? Do these people perhaps
need all that extra money to compensate them for the lack of love and affection in their personal lives?
Do we have wars? Or do you think that wars are "natural" and only to be expected?
I am not attempting to assign "blame." That is fruitless; it feels good for a time, but in fact it perpetuates the damage. I
am attempting to make explicit what is wrong with the entire
system.
The great Sigmund Freud (the fact that he made mistakes does not mean that he did not have a lot of brilliant insights, in my judgement) wrote a book titled (in English translation)
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. In that book he wrote in great detail in just what ways the dominant society is, in fact, partly pathological -- or pathogenic. Can you say that you do not see any of it? Are you awake? In denial?
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Psycho/
My contention is that the vast majority of what we call mental illness is in origin due to the discrepancy, or
enforced split, between what is said, and what is in fact, true. Families in which the truth is allowed to be spoken do not produce mentally ill children, I think. At least, they produce offspring who are more resistant to developing it as a result of the influences of the rest of society. Families in which the children are forced or induced to deny their actual feelings and thoughts, in which the need to express direct love and affection is denied, produce what we call "disturbed" offspring. Is it any wonder that they are disturbed? Something badly wrong has happened to them.
How does this fit into the "medical model" of "mental illness" as separate from and estranged from the rest of humanity itself? To tell the truth, I think that medicine
should encompass the ability to describe and treat these dis-eases. But it needs to do so with accuracy, knowing what causes what and what is -- shall I say, error?
So I am saying that "mental illness" is not something distinct and apart from society as a whole. In focussing entirely on
individuals who have been "diagnosed" as deviant, sight is lost of the truth. I have read a number of times that the one diagnosed as "mentally ill" in a family can be actually something of a scapegoat, or carrier, of the stigma in what is in fact a dysfunctional
family. One person gets assigned the task of carrying blame for what is in fact a dis-ease of wider scope. And in this way the actual cure for the disorder is made more difficult, as the truth is almost completely obscured.
Blame is extremely common in our society. No wonder people want to avoid it and if possible shift it to someone else. Blame and truth are not the same thing. Blame
causes damage. Truth seeking
heals it. Hiding things causes damage. Letting in sunshine heals. Or so I say.
This applies to Psych Central just as much as to the rest of our worldwide society.
A couple (NOT an exhaustive list) of links I found to what one other person has to say about the "reality" of "mental illness." I think a search could find more that are even "respectable":
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/exist.htm
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/schizoph.htm
edited to place trigger icon