THE MYTH OF MENTAL ILLNESS
These insights by Martin and Deidre Bobgan were published way back in 1989, but need to be passed around again and introduced to a generation that has grown up believing the myth of "mental illness". Pass it on!
THE MYTH OF MENTAL ILLNESS
The terms mental disease, mental illness, and mental disorder are popular catch-alls for all kinds of problems of living, most of which have little or nothing to do with disease. As soon as a person's behavior is labeled "illness," treatment and therapy become the solutions. If, on the other hand, we consider a person to be responsible for his behavior, we should deal with him in the areas of education, faith, and choice. If we label him "mentally ill," we rob him of the human dignity of personal responsibility and the divine relationship by which problems may be met.
Because the term mental illness throws attitudes and behavior into the medical realm, it is important to examine it's accuracy. In discussing the concept of mental illness or mental disease, research psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey says:
"The term itself is nonsensical, a semantic mistake. The two words cannot go together...you can no more have a mental "disease" than you can have a purple idea or a wise space." (The Death Of Psychiatry, Radnor: Chilton Book Co., 1974, p. 36).
The word mental means "mind" and the mind is not the same as the brain. Also, the mind is really more than just a function or activity of the brain. Brain researcher and author Barbara Brown insists that the mind goes beyond the brain. She says:
"The scientific consensus that mind is only mechanical brain is dead wrong...the research data of the sciences themselves point much mor strongly toward the existence of a mind-more-than-brain than they do toward the mere mechanical brain action." (Supermind, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980, p. 6).
God created the human mind to know Him and to choose to love, trust and obey Him. In the very creative act, God planned for mankind to rule His earthly creation and to serve as His representatives on earth. Because the mind goes beyond the physical realm, it goes beyond the reaches of science and cannot be mentally sick.
Since the mind is not a physical organ, it cannot have a disease. While one can have a diseased brain, one cannot have a diseased mind, although he may have a sinful or unredeemed mind. Torrey aptly says:
"The mind cannot really become diseased any more than the intellect can become abscessed. Furthermore, the idea that mental "diseases" are actually brain diseases creates a strange category of "diseases" which are, by definition, without known cause. Body and behavior become intertwined in this confusion until they are no longer distinguishable. It is necessary to return to first principles: a disease is something you have, behavior is something you do." (op. cit. p. 40)
One can understand what a diseased body is, but what is a diseased mind? it is obvious that one cannot have a diseased emotion or a diseased behavior. Then why a diseased mind? Nevertheless, therapists continually refer to mental-emotional-behavioral problems as diseases.
Thomas Szasz criticizes what he calls the "psychiatric imposter" who "supports a common, culturally shared desire to equate and confuse brain and mind, nerves and nervousness." (The Myth of Psychotherapy, Garden City: Doubleday, 1978, p. 7). Not only are brain and mind not synonymous, neither are nerves and nervousness. One might nervously await the arrival of a friend who is late for an appointment, but the nerves are busy performing other tasks. Szasz futher says:
"It is customary to define psychiatry as a medical specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. This is a worthless and misleading definition. Mental illness is a myth...the notion of a person "having a mental illness" is scientificall crippling. It provides professional assent to the popular rationalization – namely, that problems in living experienced and expressed in terms of so-called psychiatric symptoms are basically similar to bodily diseases." (The Myth of Mental Illness, New York: Harper & Row, 1974, p. 262).
Although a medical problem or brain disease may bring on mental-emotional-behavioral symptoms, the person does not and cannot rationally be classified as "mentally ill." he is medically ill, not mentally ill. The words psychological and biological are not synonymous. In the same way, mental and medical are not synonymous. One refers to the mind, the other to the body.
Psychological counseling does not deal with the physical brain. It deals with aspects of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Therefore, the psychotherapist is not in the business of healing diseases, but of teaching new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. He is a teacher, not a doctor.
Many have dishonestly used the term mental illness to describe a whole host of problems of thinking and behaving which should be labeled as "problems of living." Though the term mental illness is a misnomer and a mismatch of words, it has become firmly ingrained in the public vocabulary and is glibly pronounced on all sorts of occasions by both lay and professional persons. Jonas Robitscher says:
"Our culture is permeated with psychiatric thought. Psychiatry, which had its beginnings in the care of the sick, has expanded its net to include everyone, and it exercises its authority over this total population by methods that range from enforced therapy and coerced control to the advancement of ideas and the promulgation of values." (The Powers of Psychiatry, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980, p. 9).
The very term mental illness has become a blight on society. If we really believe that a person with a mental-emotional-behavioral problem is sick, then we have admitted that he is no longer responsible for his behavior. And, if he is not responsible for his behavior, who is?
Because the term mental illness throws attitudes and behavior into the medical realm, it is important to examine it's accuracy. In discussing the concept of mental illness or mental disease, research psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey says:
"The term itself is nonsensical, a semantic mistake. The two words cannot go together...you can no more have a mental "disease" than you can have a purple idea or a wise space." (The Death Of Psychiatry, Radnor: Chilton Book Co., 1974, p. 36).
The word mental means "mind" and the mind is not the same as the brain. Also, the mind is really more than just a function or activity of the brain. Brain researcher and author Barbara Brown insists that the mind goes beyond the brain. She says:
"The scientific consensus that mind is only mechanical brain is dead wrong...the research data of the sciences themselves point much mor strongly toward the existence of a mind-more-than-brain than they do toward the mere mechanical brain action." (Supermind, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980, p. 6).
God created the human mind to know Him and to choose to love, trust and obey Him. In the very creative act, God planned for mankind to rule His earthly creation and to serve as His representatives on earth. Because the mind goes beyond the physical realm, it goes beyond the reaches of science and cannot be mentally sick.
Since the mind is not a physical organ, it cannot have a disease. While one can have a diseased brain, one cannot have a diseased mind, although he may have a sinful or unredeemed mind. Torrey aptly says:"The mind cannot really become diseased any more than the intellect can become abscessed. Furthermore, the idea that mental "diseases" are actually brain diseases creates a strange category of "diseases" which are, by definition, without known cause. Body and behavior become intertwined in this confusion until they are no longer distinguishable. It is necessary to return to first principles: a disease is something you have, behavior is something you do." (op. cit. p. 40)
One can understand what a diseased body is, but what is a diseased mind? it is obvious that one cannot have a diseased emotion or a diseased behavior. Then why a diseased mind? Nevertheless, therapists continually refer to mental-emotional-behavioral problems as diseases.
Thomas Szasz criticizes what he calls the "psychiatric imposter" who "supports a common, culturally shared desire to equate and confuse brain and mind, nerves and nervousness." (The Myth of Psychotherapy, Garden City: Doubleday, 1978, p. 7). Not only are brain and mind not synonymous, neither are nerves and nervousness. One might nervously await the arrival of a friend who is late for an appointment, but the nerves are busy performing other tasks. Szasz futher says:
"It is customary to define psychiatry as a medical specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. This is a worthless and misleading definition. Mental illness is a myth...the notion of a person "having a mental illness" is scientificall crippling. It provides professional assent to the popular rationalization – namely, that problems in living experienced and expressed in terms of so-called psychiatric symptoms are basically similar to bodily diseases." (The Myth of Mental Illness, New York: Harper & Row, 1974, p. 262).
Although a medical problem or brain disease may bring on mental-emotional-behavioral symptoms, the person does not and cannot rationally be classified as "mentally ill." he is medically ill, not mentally ill. The words psychological and biological are not synonymous. In the same way, mental and medical are not synonymous. One refers to the mind, the other to the body.
Psychological counseling does not deal with the physical brain. It deals with aspects of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Therefore, the psychotherapist is not in the business of healing diseases, but of teaching new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. He is a teacher, not a doctor.
Many have dishonestly used the term mental illness to describe a whole host of problems of thinking and behaving which should be labeled as "problems of living." Though the term mental illness is a misnomer and a mismatch of words, it has become firmly ingrained in the public vocabulary and is glibly pronounced on all sorts of occasions by both lay and professional persons. Jonas Robitscher says:
"Our culture is permeated with psychiatric thought. Psychiatry, which had its beginnings in the care of the sick, has expanded its net to include everyone, and it exercises its authority over this total population by methods that range from enforced therapy and coerced control to the advancement of ideas and the promulgation of values." (The Powers of Psychiatry, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980, p. 9).
The very term mental illness has become a blight on society. If we really believe that a person with a mental-emotional-behavioral problem is sick, then we have admitted that he is no longer responsible for his behavior. And, if he is not responsible for his behavior, who is?
excerpt from "Special Report: Psychology, Science or Religion?", by Martin and Deidre Bobgan, published in Media Spotlight in 1989. For more information along these lines: http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org
