Posted on 03/23/2024 6:06:23 AM PDT by Twotone
The concept of mental health is a hypochondriac’s, narcissist’s, shirker’s and social security fraud’s charter: for who can prove that someone does not so feel depressed, anxious or grief-stricken that he is unable to work? Who can distinguish between “can’t,” “won’t” and “would rather not”?
Unfortunately, mental health has come to mean any deviance from a state of perfect equanimity and satisfaction
Fragile mental health, and especially mental health issues, are said to be preventing large numbers of young people from working, with British people in their early twenties now more likely to be out of work than people in their early forties as a result. One even hears people nowadays say that “I’ve got mental health” — not meaning something positive but negative. Mental health means something bad, something incapacitating.
Those with mental health issues, or just plain mental health, can get by economically without working. This is a powerful cause, I would guess, of considerable psychological unease, for even now most people do not like to feel useless to others. The frauds among them, of course, are delighted to be paid to do nothing, especially if they can supplement their income on the side.
But the difference between the genuine cases and the fraudulent, insofar as the genuine cases really do experience wretchedness of one kind or another, is not absolutely categorical. If you play a part long enough, after all, it is what you become: habit changes character.
What is mental health? The only definition I can think of is the absence of outright lunacy. Unfortunately, it has come to mean any deviance from a state of perfect equanimity and satisfaction.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespectator.com ...
My ex ordered me to see a shrink to save our relationship so I did. After 45 minutes I walked out of his office and thought ‘this guy is more too-koo than I am!
Is it any wonder, how many kids and their parents in this country have been on some type of mood-altering medication since they were toddlers. Combine the drugs with society telling them everything is hopeless, and you create a generation of mindless idiots.
bttt
I totally agree that it is a con.
I think counseling (& maybe psychiatry) attracts people who already have “issues.” If the counselor is an emotional mess, they’re not likely to help anyone.
BTTT
the objective definition of mental health is:
Mental health is the state of psychological well-being and adaptive functioning characterized by emotional well-being, cognitive functioning, social connectedness, resilience, and self-awareness. It entails the absence of clinically significant mental disorders and the ability to cope with everyday challenges, maintain healthy relationships, and engage in productive activities.
Looks like a paywall.
Thomas Szasz made a similar argument (as far as I can tell) in the 1960s. He wrote a book called “The Myth of Mental Illness”.
I would say (and I think Szasz also made this point) that some people have a legitimate chemical imbalance. Schizophrenics, for example, have brains that are seriously mis-firing.
But most “mentally ill” people just think in a way which may displease other people. Or may displease themselves. Well, maybe they are not “ill”. Maybe they just need to learn how to think differently.
But we coddle a lot of people. We make excuses. Many people do not function well, and we enable them in their difficulties and tell them that “their feelings are valid”. I’m not sure this works out well for the “mentally ill” or for society.
To be clear: I believe in mental hospitals for people who cannot function. A mental hospital is not a prison. But it’s pretty close to being a prison. Society would benefit if some mentally ill people were locked away.
And if your problems do not rise to the level of requiring hospitalization then I think you should snap out of it. Work on yourself. Fix yourself. Don’t make it my problem that you have a wretched miserable non-functioning personality.
The women I work all have letters before their pronouns and all of them are anxious, skittish and easily offended. The other men I work with are quiet, confident, no pronouns, come in shut up and get the work done.
GREAT article by Theodore Dalrymple. Thanks for posting.
You can’t be mentally ill if you must work to stay alive.
interesting similar experience with a different outcome. wife at the time demanded I needed counseling so looked up a shrink who was surprisingly balanced and different than I had expected. went for two months and the guy actually helped me realize and accept that I wasn’t the root problem in the marriage and i couldn’t “fix” her. he flat out told me that I shouldn’t be surprised when I change and she doesn’t. he was right. I did...she didn’t. very HAPPILY remarried and all of the stuff my ex always blamed on me doesn’t exist anymore. signed:never stay in a relationship past its expiration date.
“If the counselor is an emotional mess, they’re not likely to help anyone.”
More often than not they are - that’s why they went in the shrink business in the first place.
Reminds me of how they “solved” illegal immigration by banning the term.
Call them mentally ill, insane, or just crazy...but don't overlook the fact that they are just plain nuts.
On another issue, the concept of universal basic income will multiply human insanity exponentially because work is integral to human mental health. If humans are paid for nothing and have to produce nothing, they will lose all meaning and drift rapidly into a state of mass insanity.
The big question is, what the hell has happened to humans that they don't recognize the above?
My ex-wife wanted the same thing. Like you, I obliged, only on the condition that we both go: at least once together and each of us at least once separately. The psych lady told us that my ex is the one with the problems. All of a sudden my ex came to the conclusion that seeing psychologists is a bad idea. LOL
That’s really true.
I think a great many of our problems (including mental illness) come from being a very rich very successful society. There is a downside to too much affluence.
But the communists come along and quickly agree — which is why we need to “eat the rich” or something. As a Conservative I am not OK with that kind of thinking. On the one hand, I do think our society is “too rich” but on the other side, I do not think redistribution of wealth is any kind of solution.
I have no idea what the solution is. Personally, I wish I were Amish. But that wouldn’t work for everyone and I would not want to impose some bucolic pastoral lifestyle on others. It’s not my place.
A swift kick in the seat of the pants straightens out a person’s thinking quicker than any pill or analysis.
We need a new John Wayne.
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