What is Mental Illness really???
Let me preface my remarks on mental illness by first stating that in the cases of bi-polar, or manic-depressive, or major depression, these are not mental illness' but are the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain which can be treated with medication. In other words, depression usually has an organic, physical, or biological cause. They are not the result of demon possession.
With that being said, just like in many areas today, we tend to laugh at what the Bible says about something, and then later on we find out it was right all along. Actually, the Bible never refers to someone as being "mentally ill" but it does call them "demon possessed." or as "having a sickness or disease." And interestingly enough, we have no trouble celebrating or believing in Halloween, or watching scary movies, such as the "Exorcist" or " The Omen", or anything having to do with the Devil, and witches, and demonic characters, but when the Bible talks about them and says they are real, we scoff. Demon possession in our society is believed in movies, etc. but is not believed in the Bible.
And yet many go to psychics, fortune tellers, practice witchcraft, cast spells and curses, participate in Black Sabbaths, read the Satanic Bible, participate in magic, and engage in every kind of debauchery that is out there. And have no trouble believing in these demonic things when the world is the one celebrating, promoting or portraying them. But when the Bible talks about them in a serious way, saying that there is such a thing as "demon possession," we laugh.
God actually attributes any abnormality in thinking to the influence of the Devil and demonic spirits. Modern psychology, on the other hand uses labels such as Schizophrenic, Psychopathic, Borderline Personality Disorder, Anti-social Personality Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, etc. There are over 300 labels that are attributed to the mentally ill by the psychiatrists, and psychologists.
Jesus did not say one word about mental illness, but he did say many things about demon possession and physical sickness and deformity. You have to admit, that the symptoms of all of these modern day disorders are very abusive and morally evil symptoms.
Take the case of ADHD, a highly diagnosed disorder today, where tons of kids are doped up on Ratalin, and other similar medications, when the real problem is a behavioral one and parents who refuse or don't know how to discipline their children. Parents who want their kids to love them so much they don't want their anger or don't want to hear that their child hates them, so they allow them to become spoiled brats. The reality though is they have a child who is rebellious and does not want to do anything that takes attention and work.
And you have the parents of these types of children who would rather be their kid's "best friend" rather than their parent. Many of these children simply have no consequences for bad behavior. And psychiatrists, rather than train the parent how to discipline their children, just hand them a prescription to medicate their child instead so that they can control them. How many kids in schools are on medication for this disorder? Thousands. And it is simply an easy way to calm them down rather than to hold them accountable for their bad behavior. In other words, it is a cop out for loving your child enough to require them to conform to society and behave like a decent human being.
The Bible states: DISCIPLINE a child in the way he/she should go, and they will not depart from it. The problem is parents who refuse to discipline and have consequences for bad behavior. ADHD is NOT a mental illness, it is a behavioral problem of a rebellious child and lazy parents.
There are however, legitimate cases of children who are allergic to some foods that make them hyperactive, and these are the ones that should be corrected with removal of the allergenic substance.
People who are labeled by Psychologists and Psychiatrists as mentally ill, or as having personality disorders, DO commit murder, and rape, and they destroy property, and they hurt animals and people, and they set fires, and they do sadistic things to others. Not only that, but they enjoy and get a "rush" from watching someone else in pain. This is pure evil. None of the things that supposedly mentally ill people do are nice things. They are usually evil, hurtful and sadistic things done to others or against themselves or society.
But a Christian counselor, Pastoral Counselor such as myself, knows that at the root of all disorders is some type of sin. Some type of choosing to do the wrong thing over the right thing. Since we have "free will" we can choose to participate in evil activities, or we can choose to have nothing to do with them. It is a question of our values and morals, and resisting temptations, and following the "light" instead of living in the "darkness."
In the Bible are many scriptures referring to wicked spirits that take possession of someone. And many times, these spirits inhabit someone without their knowledge or conscious choice.
1.) Acts 5:15-16
" The sick were brought out of beds and couches into the street so that at Peter's coming his shadow might fall on some of them. And a crowd from the cities around Jerusalem also came bringing their sick and those who were beset by unclean spirits, and they were cured." ( Notice that this scripture differentiates between those who are "sick" and those who are "beset by unclean spirits.")
2.) Acts 8:6
" And the crowds with one mind listened to the things Philip said when they heard and saw the miracles that he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed by them, and many were paralyzed and lame and cured. And the joy was great in that city." ( Once again there is a differentiation between those who were physically lame or paralyzed and those who had unclean spirits.)
3.) Acts 19:11
" And God worked unusual works of power by the hands of Paul, so that if even handkerchiefs or aprons from next to his skin were brought to the sick, the diseases left them and the wicked spirits came out of them."
Notice that in these scriptures there is a distinction made between those with a "disease" and those with "wicked spirits"
There are some people today who will tell you that Jesus just said "wicked Spirits" when he really meant "mental Illness" because they would not have understood that term in those days. However, Jesus does not lie. He does not say something is true when it is not. He does not use a lie to convey a truth. If there was such a thing as "mental illness" he would have explained it and said so back then. I highly doubt he would cast a legion of spirits out of a man that numbered 2000, as he did one time, and drive them into a herd of 2000 pigs that jumped off of a cliff into the ocean, if there was no such thing as demon possession. If so, then he would have said, I am now casting 2000 personality disorders into 2000 pigs to heal this person's mental illness. How insane does that sound?
Besides that, Jesus spoke of the Devil as being a real entity many times. He told us to "be on guard because the Devil is prowling around like a roaring Lion seeking those whom he may devour." Another verse says the Devil is the "Father of lies", which of course is the trademark of psychopaths and pathological liars. The Bible teaches us that the Devil has one goal and that is to " Seek, Kill, and Destroy" us. Mental illness is all about seeking people to hurt, destroy and kill. And since the Devil's goal is to kill and destroy us, some people even kill themselves. Evil does not have to literally kill someone, you can kill someone's marriage, their job, their reputation, their goals and dreams. You can kill their desire to live.
Jesus died on the Cross to overcome Evil and the Devil and to save us from Evil. So Jesus believed in and cast out demons from people who were making them do horrendous things. And people today are still possessed by evil spirits. They are just more sophisticated in their evil. Evil comes disguised looking like "an angel of light" so that you will be fooled. Demon possession can be very subtle and does not have to look like the "Exorcist." Evil can look like what is happening in our government as we speak. Are all those politicians mentally ill or just plain evil?
Remember when the comedienne Flip Wilson said " the Devil made me do it?" well that was funny for awhile except the Devil cannot make you do anything unless you give him an open door to inhabit your soul. The "Son of Sam" who killed many couples in New York said the Devil told him to kill those people. And Jeffery Dahmer who killed hundreds of boys and actually ate parts of them, said there was this "evil" inside of him that he could not control. That he knew what he had done was horrendous and wrong, but that he could not stop and that he had to be stopped or he would kill and kill again. Ted Bundy, the psychopathic law student who murdered hundreds of young women, actually snarled and bit them like a monster. He blamed his addiction to pornography as the reason for his crimes. Was he mentally ill or was he SINNING? Let's see, he lusted, he physically hurt and tortured his victims, and he finally committed murder. ALL of those are SINS.
Unless we can find an area in the human brain that tells a person to kill someone, and so far, science has found none, then mental illness is a myth. There is no place in the brain that says "Psychopath here" or Borderline Personality Disorder here" etc. Whereas in true sickness doctors can SEE the culprit. They can SEE the cancer cells, they can SEE the brain tumor, they can SEE the heart disease, etc. They have done autopsies on the brains of societies most evil and horrendous killers and found NOTHING in their brains that would look abnormal from your brain. Their brains were NORMAL.
Jesus taught that the primary cause of sickness in the world was a force of evil loose in the world which was hostile to God and the divine way. He believed that people sometimes fell into the hands of this power, which then exerted a destructive influence in their lives, morally, psychologically, mentally and physically. You may call this force Satan, the devil, evil spirits, demons, autonomous complexes, or what you will. But it is NOT mental illness. There is no such thing, according to the Bible and to Jesus and to God.
The bottom line is the only protection against the evasion of this evil into the personalities of men and women is to be filled with God's Holy Spirit. Sickness and disease never come from God. They come from the devil. And without God's spirit living inside of you, the human being, on their own is helpless in keeping the devil out of their lives. We need Jesus's and God's help every single day to keep evil from us or from getting into us. The part that is under our control is our decision to ask for God's protection and help, or to choose to do it on our own, which is when we get into trouble.
In the Lord's prayer we say, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from Evil." So evidently we can be tempted and evil is a reality that we need prayer for to be delivered from on a daily basis.
There is another scripture that states that the sins of the fathers will be passed down to the third and fourth generations. Meaning that if someone practiced witchcraft or some other form of evil in a family, that sin will be passed down for three or four generations. Future generations will be influenced by that sin and practice it.
We are all born into this world with original sin. Meaning we come into the world as sinners since the fall of Adam and Eve. And then our spirits are influenced by either God or the Devil our entire lives. When you look at the characteristics of some of these so called mental illness' what the so called mentally ill people are doing is really just committing some sin or sins. Mentally ill people usually hurt others. I am talking about the ones with personality disorders. NOT MANIC DEPRESSION or sickness caused by chemical imbalances in the brain.
But there is NOTHING in the brain that causes someone to rape, kill, murder, or mutilate another person. It is an evil act, a deliberate act, usually one that is planned and enjoyed. Most serial killers are very sadistic. They enjoy watching others suffer. They get a "rush" out of inflicting pain and they can't wait to do it again and again.
This is not mental illness it is blatant SIN. Thou shalt not murder, God said. He did not say, you might become so mentally ill that you might murder someone. He said "DON'T MURDER SOMEONE" He said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" the Golden Rule. But people with so called personality disorders do horrible things to other people. They thrive on it. It is their life style, it is their method of relating to others.
Borderline Personality Disorder is all about lying, anger, and rage, and revenge, and plotting and planning the downfall of another person. It is about jealousy, and envy, and hatred. Anti-social Personality Disorder is all about bullying, and stealing, and hitting, and torturing animals, or people, which then progresses to having no conscious and on purpose hitting and killing other people. It can take the form of burning down houses, and destroying property, and controlling other people.
Domestic Violence is all about power and control. Rape is about anger. Pornography is about lusting after the flesh and using and degrading women.
The so-called personality disorders are just a nice way of saying people are sinning and disobeying the Ten Commandments.
Here are the Ten Commandments:
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. ( People diagnosed with personality disorders mainly think only of themselves and not others. They put themselves first above all else. Psychology calls them Narcissistic.)
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. ( When you cast spells, and worship idols, even materialists idols, and make them more important than God, you will either cause trouble and get into trouble.)
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. ( When you hurt another human being either physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually or torture an animal you are completely disrespecting God's creation and you are playing God. You are showing no respect for your Creator.)
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (When children murder their own parents they are definitely breaking this commandment. And saying that a drug caused you to kill your parents as has been the case in some murders, is a complete cop out)
6. Thou shalt not kill. (Society believes that you must be mentally ill to kill another person. God however says it is a SIN. Nothing more, nothing less.)
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. ( There are several so called personality disorders that most often involve adultery. Borderline Personality Disordered people are sexually amoral and have many partners and marriages. However, once again, God says it is simply SIN. To commit adultery is not because you are mentally ill, but is because you chose to sin.)
8. Thou shalt not steal. (Many mentally ill people steal, destroy property, plan and plot, and scheme. They are not mentally ill, they are just sinners. The Bible calls them thieves. Psychology says they have anti-social personality disorder. The reality is quite different. They are just people who steal and feel no guilt.)
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. ( Psychopaths lie, all the time. Their entire life is one big lie, and they can become whatever they need to pretend to me to fool the next victim. But most of what comes out of their mouths is complete lies. They will kill their own grandmother and not blink an eye if she stands in the way of something that they want. They are suburb actors. They are not mentally ill, they are evil and they sin over and over. And they are very charming, cunning and smart. They know EXACTLY what they are doing. But when they are caught they will claim "insanity." The reality is they usually have very high IQ's.)
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's ( Once again, this is about wanting something that does not belong to you, it is about rapeing someone's wife, it is about stealing someone's property, it is about envy, and jealousy, and anger and revenge. It is about committing whatever crime one needs to commit to get something that belongs to someone else. Some people will commit murder to get something of someone else's. Psychology calls this Conduct Disorder, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, and finally Psychopath. The reality is they are people who think only of themselves, they will kill to get what they want, they can fool even the most competent experts, and they can talk their way out of anything. They are extremely evil and extremely dangerous, but they are NOT mentally ill. They are just SINNERS.
Since psychology is a new science, only about a 100 years old, and religion has been here since the world was created, it is only fair to note that psychology grew out of religion, not the other way around. It is my belief that psychology has just given new names to old ones that have been around for centuries and most notably in the Bible.
If a person goes out and murders someone, and then cuts their body into little pieces and buries it under their house, that is because they CHOSE to do so. They have consistently chosen throughout their life, to do the wrong thing instead of the right thing, and they did so because they actually enjoyed it. Because the Spirit of God is not in them, to prevent them from doing such horrendous things. There are only two Spirits in this world. God's or the Devil's, and we spend our entire life time following one or the other, and we demonstrate which one we are following by our words and actions.
Modern psychology and psychiatry have given people excuses for their sinful behaviors. They make up labels to give people who do horrible things, or they keep them so drugged up, they become like zombies and walk around in circles in psychiatric units muttering to themselves that they are the "Queen of England." They will never get well, because we won't allow them to. We do not tell mentally ill people that their real problem is a "sin problem" not a "brain problem." UNLESS there is a brain tumor or a chemical imbalance that can be tested and seen, then all the other so called disorders are people just sinning and getting away with it.
If you were abused as a child, physically, mentally, emotionally, or sexually, then of course that is going to impact how you feel about life and how you act as an adult. And many molesters were molested themselves as children and many wife beaters were beaten themselves as children. Which is what the Bible means when it says the sins of the fathers are passed down to the third and forth generations. But at some point, it needs to be called what it really is, which is SIN. and the cycle needs to be broken and healed. You cannot heal someone from a sin problem with medication or by locking them away in an institution or by tying them up in a straight jacket.
The most compassionate thing you can do for someone who is labeled mentally ill, is to tell them they are breaking the Ten Commandments, they are sinning, and they can chose to behave in the right way. Then they can actually become healthy. But locking them away, and putting them on a lifetime of drugs, heals nothing in their souls. And the soul is what is sick and needs healing.
In conclusion, I believe that there is no such thing as "mental illness" but there are definitely the desires of the human heart, which can be infinitely evil. However, God has given us "free will" to do the right thing, or the wrong thing. He has given us a built in conscious that convicts us of wrong doing, if we listen to it. If our evil is so great that we have rendered our conscious inoperable, then we are the children of the Devil, not God. Ultimately the choice is ours.
Patricia Jones, M.A.
Pastoral Counselor
Does Mental Illness really exist???
by Lawrence Stevens, J.D.
All diagnosis and treatment in psychiatry, especially biological psychiatry, presupposes the existence of something called mental illness, also known as mental disease or mental disorder. What is meant by disease, illness, or disorder? In a semantic sense disease means simply dis-ease, the opposite of ease. But by disease we don't mean anything that causes a lack of ease, since this definition would mean losing one's job or a war or economic recession or an argument with one's spouse qualifies as "disease". In his book Is Alcoholism Hereditary? psychiatrist Donald W. Goodwin, M.D., discusses the definition of disease and concludes "Diseases are something people see doctors for. ... Physicians are consulted about the problem of alcoholism and therefore alcoholism becomes, by this definition, a disease" (Ballantine Books, 1988, p. 61). Accepting this definition, if for some reason people consulted physicians about how to get the economy out of recession or how to solve a disagreement with one's mate or a bordering nation, these problems would also qualify as disease. But clearly this is not what is meant by "disease". In his discussion of the definition of disease, Dr. Goodwin acknowledges there is "a narrow definition of disease that requires the presence of a biological abnormality" (ibid). In this pamphlet I will show that there are no biological abnormalities responsible for so-called mental illness, mental disease, or mental disorder, and that therefore mental illness has no biological existence. Perhaps more importantly, however, I will show that mental illness also has no non-biological existence - except in the sense that the term is used to indicate disapproval of some aspect of a person's mentality.
The idea of mental illness as a biological entity is easy to refute. In 1988, Seymour S. Kety, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience in Psychiatry, and Steven Matthysse, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychobiology, both of Harvard Medical School, said "an impartial reading of the recent literature does not provide the hoped-for clarification of the catecholamine hypotheses, nor does compelling evidence emerge for other biological differences that may characterize the brains of patients with mental disease" (The New Harvard Guide to Psychiatry, Harvard Univ. Press, p. 148). In 1992 a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment concluded: "Many questions remain about the biology of mental disorders. In fact, research has yet to identify specific biological causes for any of these disorders. ... Mental disorders are classified on the basis of symptoms because there are as yet no biological markers or laboratory tests for them" (The Biology of Mental Disorders, U.S. Gov't Printing Office, 1992, pp. 13-14, 46-47).
In his book The Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs, Columbia University psychiatry professor Jack M. Gorman, M.D., said "We really do not know what causes any psychiatric illness" (St. Martin's Press, 1990, p. 316). In his book The New Psychiatry another Columbia University psychiatry professor, Jerrold S. Maxmen, M.D., said "It is generally unrecognized that psychiatrists are the only medical specialists who treat disorders that, by definition, have no definitively known causes or cures. ... A diagnosis should indicate the cause of a mental disorder, but as discussed later, since the etiologies of most mental disorders are unknown, current diagnostic systems can't reflect them" (Mentor, 1985, pp. 19 & 36 - emphasis in original). In his book Toxic Psychiatry, psychiatrist Peter Breggin, M.D., said "there is no evidence that any of the common psychological or psychiatric disorders have a genetic or biological component" (St. Martin's Press, 1991, p. 291).
It is sometimes argued that psychiatric drugs "curing" (stopping) the thinking, emotions, or behavior that is called mental illness proves the existence of biological causes of mental illness. This argument is easily refuted: Suppose someone was playing the piano and you didn't like him doing that. Suppose you forced or persuaded him to take a drug that disabled him so severely that he couldn't play the piano anymore. Would this prove his piano playing was caused by a biological abnormality that was cured by the drug? As senseless as this argument is, it is often made. Most if not all psychiatric drugs are neurotoxic, producing a greater or lesser degree of generalized neurological disability. So they do stop disliked behavior and may mentally disable a person enough he can no longer feel angry or unhappy or "depressed". But calling this a "cure" is absurd. Extrapolating from this that the drug must have cured an underlying biological abnormality that was causing the disliked emotions or behavior is equally absurd.
When confronted with the lack of evidence for their belief in mental illness as a biological entity, some defenders of the concept of mental illness will assert that mental illness can exist and can be defined as a "disease" without there being a biological abnormality causing it. The idea of mental illness as a nonbiological entity requires a more lengthy refutation than the biological argument.
People are thought of as mentally ill only when their thinking, emotions, or behavior is contrary to what is considered acceptable, that is, when others (or the so-called patients themselves) dislike something about them. One way to show the absurdity of calling something an illness not because it is caused by a biological abnormality but only because we dislike it or disapprove of it is to look at how values differ from one culture to another and how values change over time.
In his book The Psychology of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D., a psychologist, wrote: "One of the prime tasks of the science of psychology is to provide definitions of mental health and mental illness. ...But there is no general agreement among psychologists and psychiatrists about the nature of mental health or mental illness - no generally accepted definitions, no basic standard by which to gauge one psychological state or other. Many writers declare that no objective definitions and standards can be established - that a basic, universally applicable concept of mental health is impossible. They assert that, since behavior which is regarded as healthy or normal in one culture may be regarded as neurotic or aberrated in another, all criteria are a matter of 'cultural bias.' The theorists who maintain this position usually insist that the closest one can come to a definition of mental health is: conformity to cultural norms. Thus, they declare that a man is psychologically healthy to the extent that he is 'well-adjusted' to his culture. ...
The obvious questions that such a definition raises, are: What if the values and norms of a given society are irrational? Can mental health consist of being well-adjusted to the irrational? What about Nazi Germany, for instance? Is a cheerful servant of the Nazi state - who feels serenely and happily at home in his social environment - an exponent of mental health?" (Bantam Books, 1969, pp. 95-96, emphasis in original). Dr. Branden is doing several things here: First, he is confusing morality and rationality, saying that respect for human rights is rational when in fact it is not a question of rationality but rather of morality. So psychologically and emotionally locked into and blinded by his values is he that Dr. Branden is evidently incapable of seeing the difference.
Additionally, Dr. Branden is stating some of his values. Among these values are: Respect for human rights is good; violation of human rights (like Nazism) is bad. And he is saying: Violating these values is "irrationality" or mental illness. Although their practitioners won't admit it and often are not even aware of it, psychiatry and "clinical" psychology in their very essence are about values - values concealed under a veneer of language that makes it sound like they are not furthering values but promoting "health".
The answer to the question Dr. Branden poses is: A person living in Nazi Germany and well-adjusted to it was "mentally healthy" judged by the values of his own society. Judged by the values of a society which respects human rights he was as sick (metaphorically speaking) as the rest of his culture. A person like myself however says that such a person is morally "sick" and recognizes that the word sick has not its literal but a metaphorical meaning. To a person like Dr. Branden who believes in the myth of mental illness, such a person is literally sick and needs a doctor. The difference is that a person like myself is recognizing my values for what they are: morality. Typically, the believer in mental illness, such as Dr. Branden in this quoted passage, has the same values as I do but is confusing them with health.
One of the most telling examples is homosexuality, which was officially defined as a mental disease by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973 but hasn't been since then. Homosexuality was defined as a mental disorder on page 44 of the American Psychiatric Association's standard reference book, DSM-II: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the 2nd Edition), published in 1968. In that book, "Homosexuality" is categorized as one of the "Sexual deviations" on page 44. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from it's official diagnostic categories of mental illness. (See "An Instant Cure", Time magazine, April 1, 1974, p. 45). So when the third edition of this book was published in 1980 it said "homosexuality itself is not considered a mental disorder" (p. 282). The 1987 edition of The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy states: "The American Psychiatric Association no longer considers homosexuality a psychiatric disease" (p. 1495).
If mental illness were really an illness in the same sense that physical illnesses are illnesses, the idea of deleting homosexuality or anything else from the categories of illness by having a vote would be as absurd as a group of physicians voting to delete cancer or measles from the concept of disease. But mental illness isn't "an illness like any other illness." Unlike physical disease where there are physical facts to deal with, mental "illness" is entirely a question of values, of right and wrong, of appropriate versus inappropriate. At one time homosexuality seemed so weird and hard to understand it was necessary to invoke the concept of mental disease or mental illness to explain it. After homosexuals made a big enough spectacle of themselves and showed their "strength in numbers" and successfully demanded at least a small measure of social acceptance, it was no longer necessary and no longer seemed appropriate to explain homosexuality as a disease.
A cross-cultural example is suicide. In many countries, such as the United States and Great Britain, a person who commits suicide or attempts to do so or even thinks about it seriously is considered mentally ill. However, this has not always been true throughout human history, nor is it true today in all cultures around the world. In his book Why Suicide?, psychologist Eustace Chesser points out that "Neither Hinduism nor Buddhism have any intrinsic objections to suicide and in some forms of Buddhism self-incineration is believed to confer special merit." He also points out that "The Celts scorned to wait for old age and enfeeblement. They believed that those who committed suicide before their powers waned went to heaven, and those who died of sickness or became senile went to hell - an interesting reversal of Christian doctrine" (Arrow Books Ltd., London, England, 1968, p. 121-122).
In his book Fighting Depression, psychiatrist Harvey M. Ross, M.D., points out that "Some cultures expect the wife to throw herself on her husband's funeral pyre" (Larchmont Books, 1975, p. 20). Probably the best known example of a society where suicide is socially acceptable is Japan. Rather than thinking of suicide or "hara-kiri" as the Japanese call it as almost always caused by a mental disease or illness, the Japanese in some circumstances consider suicide the normal, socially acceptable thing to do, such as when one "loses face" or is humiliated by some sort of failure.
Another example showing suicide is considered normal, not crazy, in Japanese eyes is the kamikaze pilots Japan used against the U.S. Navy in World War II. They were given enough fuel for a one-way trip, a suicide mission, to where the attacking U.S. Navy forces were located and deliberately crashed their airplanes into the enemy ships. There has never been an American kamikaze pilot, at least, none officially sponsored by the United States government. The reason for this is different attitudes about suicide in Japan and America. Could suicide be committed only by people with psychiatric illnesses in America and yet be performed by normal persons in Japan? Or is acceptance of suicide in Japan a failure or refusal to recognize the presence of psychological abnormalities which necessarily must be present for a person to voluntarily end his or her own life? Were the kamikaze pilots mentally ill, or did they and the society they come from simply have different values than we do?
Even in America, aren't virtually suicidal acts done for the sake of one's fellow soldiers or for one's country during wartime thought of not as insanity but as bravery? Why do we think of such persons as heros rather than lunatics? It seems we condemn (or "diagnose") suicidal people as crazy or mentally ill only when they end their own lives for selfish reasons (the "I can't take it any more" kind of reasons) rather than for the benefit of other people. The real issue seems to be selfishness rather than suicide.
What these examples show is that "mental illness" is simply deviance from what people want or expect in any particular society. "Mental illness" is anything in human mentality greatly disliked by the person describing it.
The situation was aptly summed up in an article in the November 1986 Omni magazine: "Disorders come and go. Even Sigmund Freud's concept of neurosis was dropped in the original DSM-III (1980). And in 1973 APA [American Psychiatric Association] trustees voted to wipe out almost all references to homosexuality as a disorder. Before the vote, being gay was considered a psychiatric problem. After the vote the disorder was relegated to psychiatry's attic. 'It's a matter of fashion,' says Dr. John Spiegel of Brandeis University, who was president of the APA in 1973, when the debate over homosexuality flared. 'And fashions keep changing'" (p. 30).
What is wrong with this approach is describing people as having a psychiatric "disease" or "illness" only because he or she doesn't match up with a supposed diagnostician's or with other people's idea of how a person "should" be in standards of dress, behavior, thinking, or opinion. When it involves violating the rights of others, nonconformity with social norms or values must be curbed or stopped with various measures, criminal law being one example. But calling nonconformity or disliked behavior a "disease" or assuming it must be caused by a disease only because it is unacceptable according to currently prevailing values makes no sense. What causes us to do this is not knowing the real reasons for the thinking, emotions, or behavior we dislike. When we don't understand the real reasons, we create myths to provide an explanation. Today most of us instead believe in the myth of mental illness.
Calling disapproved thinking, emotions, or behavior a mental illness might be excusable if mental illness was a useful myth, but it isn't. Rather than helping us deal with troubled or troublesome persons, the myth of mental illness distracts us from the real problems that need to be faced. Rather than being caused by a "chemical imbalance" or other biological problem, the nonconformity, misbehavior, and emotional reactions we call mental illness are the result of difficulties people have getting their needs met and the behavior some people have learned during their lifetimes. The solutions are teaching people how to get their needs met, how to behave, and using whatever powers of enforcement are needed to force people to respect the rights of others.
THE AUTHOR, Lawrence Stevens, is a lawyer whose practice has included representing psychiatric "patients". He has published a series of pamphlets about various aspects of psychiatry, including psychiatric drugs, electroshock, and psychotherapy. His pamphlets are not copyrighted. You are invited to make copies for distribution to those you think will benefit.
1996 UPDATE:
"... modern psychiatry has yet to convincingly prove the genetic/biologic cause of any single mental illness." David Kaiser, M.D., Commentary: Against Biologic Psychiatry, December 1996 Psychiatric Times.
1997 UPDATE:
"We really do not know what causes any psychiatric illness." Jack M. Gorman, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, in his book The Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs - Third Edition (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1997), p. 314. The same statement in the 1990 edition was quoted above in Mr. Stevens' article, "Does Mental Illness Exist?"
1998 UPDATES:
"Contrary to what is often claimed, no biochemical, anatomical, or functional signs have been found that reliably distinguish the brains of mental patients." Elliot S. Valenstien, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Michigan, in his book Blaming the Brain: The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health (The Free Press, New York, 1998), p. 125.
"...there are no external validating criteria for psychiatric diagnoses. There is neither a blood test nor specific anatomic lesions for any major psychiatric disorder." From a letter dated December 4, 1998 by Loren R. Mosher, M.D., a psychiatrist, resigning from the American Psychiatric Association.
1999 UPDATES:
"... all 5 million to 6 million children on these drugs [for hyperactivity] are normal. The country's been led to believe that all painful emotions are a mental illness and the leadership of the APA [American Psychiatric Association] knows very well that they are representing it as a disease when there is no scientific data to confirm any mental illness." Neurologist Fred Baughman, quoted in Insight magazine, June 28, 1999, p. 13 (underline added).
"...there is no evidence that these mental illnesses, such as ADHD, exist." Psychiatrist Peter Breggin, quoted in Insight magazine, June 28, 1999, p. 13. ADHD is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
2000 UPDATES:
"In medicine, strict criteria exist for calling a condition a disease. In addition to a predictable cluster of symptoms, the cause of the symptoms or some understanding of their physiology must be established. ... Psychiatry is unique among medical specialties in that... We do not yet have proof either of the cause or the physiology for any psychiatric diagnosis. ... In recent decades, we have had no shortage of alleged biochemical imbalances for psychiatric conditions. Diligent though these attempts have been, not one has been proven. Quite the contrary. In every instance where such an imbalance was thought to have been found, it was later proven false. ... No claim of a gene for a psychiatric condition has stood the test of time, in spite of popular misinformation." Joseph Glenmullen, M.D., clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in his book Prozac Backlash (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000), pages 192-193, page 196, and page 198.
"A disease is a condition that has a known cause and can be identified by one or another set of laboratory tests." Miryam Ehrlich Williamson, Fibromyalgia: A Comprehensive Approach, 2000, Chapter 1.
"There is no evidence that any psychiatric or psychological disorder is caused by a biochemical imbalance." Peter R. Breggin, M.D., in his book Reclaiming Our Children (Persues Books, Cambridge, Mass., 2000), page 139.
"First, no biological etiology has been proven for any psychiatric disorder (except Alzheimer's disease, which has a genetic component) in spite of decades of research. ... So don't accept the myth that we can make an 'accurate diagnosis.' ... Neither should you believe that your problems are due solely to a 'chemical imbalance.'" Edward Drummond, M.D., Associate Medical Director at Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in his book The Complete Guide to Psychiatric Drugs (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 2000), pages 15-16. Dr. Drummond graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine and was trained in psychiatry at Harvard University.
2001 UPDATE:
"Remember that no biochemical, neurological, or genetic markers have been found for attention deficit disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, compulsive alcohol and drug abuse, overeating, gambling, or any other so-called mental illness, disease, or disorder." Bruce Levine, Ph.D. (psychologist), Commonsense Rebellion: Debunking Psychiatry, Confronting Society (Continuum, New York 2001), p. 277.
