Posted on 01/19/2024 9:07:39 AM PST by Antoninus
Even enemies of Catholicism recognized that the devout practice of the faith (pre Vatican II) yielded more psychologically resilient individuals.
Over 50% Of Liberal, White Women Under 30 Have A Mental Health Issue. The other 50% are lying about it.
I believe the actual number from that Pew survey was 56%. It is truly a shocking stat that should have set off alarm bells everywhere. The mainstreaming of mental illness is a terrible trend.
The people I know that have anxiety, unfounded fears, take meds for depression don’t believe in God or Jesus. I pray for strength and guidance thru these difficult times and I am given ample opportunity where I need to be strong and I’m shown the correct path. No meds, no anxiety or fears about tomorrow because I know what is coming and I welcome it with all my heart.
What fills that "space" can offer solidity and security, or it can yield anxiety and fear. It is a matter of belief, and that "space" which is the cognitive mechanics to one's worldview and self-view as well.
The Lefty media of today has been marketing fear for decades, such that its truly 'evangelical' has made 'converts' who flee solidity and security in favor of or insecurity and anxiety, which goes on to feed itself -- by eating itself.
My wife and I, appearing to Lefties as "conspicuously more solid and secure" are often irritated that they cannot shake us with their pent up rage.
I don’t know if it all is really about who (among which religion) does or does not have neurosis, or if it is about where someone goes to get solace for their grief in their neurosis.
Also, I tink a lot of the “evidence” is anectdotal and likely not very scientific.
As anecdotal evidence, in my own life, among all the Catholics I have known, I have encountered as many neurotics among them compared to everyone else. Of course seeing them as neurotics in my view says nothing (i have no knowldge in most cases) as to who did or did not seek professional counseling for the problems that always plagued them.
Carl Jung wrote in the 1930s, before the cultural revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s sowed demonic chaos in the Church.
I have seen a lot of “neuroses” among clerical and lay Catholics, some of it quite nasty and destructive. A few years ago I went into a parish office to see the pastor and realized as I walked down the corridor that I had passed three people with significant “issues": codependency, out of control control issues, and something I couldn't identify but denial, control, and crippling, morbid obesity were signs.
I don't get upset as much by the illness as by the enabling.
As to why mental problems have arisen, you don't have far to look. Since the early 1900s theories of child—rearing have been abysmal. I've read excerpts from the books. They were inhumane at first. Then the backlash, exemplified by A.S. Neil, took hold and moral neglect replaced emotional neglect.
Then the government started subsidizing single parenthood while mothers thought they ought — indeed some felt bound by a duty to the “sisterhood” — to neglect their children, parking them in kiddie warehouses, from infancy in some cases.
I was head teacher in an “extended care” program in the 70s and I saw parental selfishness to a degree that astonished me.
Pre- or post- Vatican II Catholics seem to share equally in the pain. One of the most apparently devout Catholics I know is an alcoholic, formerly obese, but he got sick (secondary to his obesity), and has no discernible sense of remorse. One of his 8 children has remained Catholic.
His Catholic wife, who “enabled” and denied for decades is now oppressed with crippling depression. The most “traditional Catholic” thing about her is that she gets angry when somebody raises the question of codependency. She toes the cultural Catholic line in her aversion to what has been learned in psychology (which isn't nearly enough, to be sure.) So the problems which arise when the head of the house is an alcohol abusing narcissist just get passed in to the next generation.
To conclude, this article is very wrong indeed.
“As the survivor of a devout Anglican sadistic narcissist parent and, therefore, the “consumer” of a BUNCH of pshrinks’ services, I’m here to tell yo that therapy ain’t solace in any simple sense.”
I certainly said nothing to disagree with you. One point I made was merely whether or not there is any kind of veriable proof, that Catholics in general have less neurosis than others. I don’t believe there is.
My other point was that if someone has some neurosis, there are differences in how they address it, with professional help, or otherwise. From that, any facts about who does or not visit psychiatrists is not a factual indicator of who doea or does not have some neurosis.
“Were any of them: 1.) raised during the early 20th century before the poisons entered the Church en masse? or 2.) formed in a Catholic family that attends an exceptionally devout or traditional Catholic parish?”
Yes to both questions.
“Were any of them: 1.) raised during the early 20th century before the poisons entered the Church en masse? or 2.) formed in a Catholic family that attends an exceptionally devout or traditional Catholic parish?”
Yes to both questions.
However, to that question, I doubt (in terms of neurosis) there is significant statistical differences between Catholics and Protesants raised during the early 20th century, and Cathoics and Protestants whose families attend exceptionally devout or traditional Christian churhces. I think the later point, not Catholic or non-Catholic may provide some difference in rates of neurosis.
Mental illness is all over the place and everywhere. It is here on Free Republic, when the cray-cray spout off about Vattel and the need for two citizen parents. It is here with the people who claim being a dope fiend is a victimless crime, and they should be able to puff doobies until they are blue (green) in the face. It is here among the anarcho-capitalists and libertarians who claim government regulation is unnecessary. It is here among the folks who want to raise the retirement age for social security, year after year, as opposed to simply raising taxes. It is here among the people who are opposed to reasonable minimum wage laws, and who think that if we have national health care, then that is the same as us becoming commie cossacks or something. It is here among the people who holler about lawsuits being frivolous as if that was true in the majority of cases, and not just a small minority. There is plenty of mental illness, specifically in the refusal to deal with Reality. Thank goodness we do not yet have the mentally ill here of the gender freaks, social justice warriors and gun-banners variety.
The USSR, under the bootheel of Josef Stalin, pioneered the practice of defining political disagreement as mental illness.
psychoanalysis and its related professions always struck me as being a secular counterfeit of sacramental confession.
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