“THEY LIE ON ANOTHER CLASSIFICATION OF THE DSM-5”
May is Mental Health Awareness Month - After all
I remember the following so well, being in the 10th grade at the time. I must say that even at that age and in that time I understood an ignorance on display. I went on to become diagnosed with a disorder in 1987. So I have spent much time on this subject over the years, some of them being quite difficult because of my condition. Fully accepting one’s condition, as comparable to the First Step in 12-step programs is imperative. In this many fail. Herein lies my concern.
In 1972, Sen. Thomas Eagleton lasted 18 days as Sen. George McGovern's running mate after admitting he had received electroshock therapy for depression. "It seemed a foregone conclusion to people that such a person could never be a heartbeat from the presidency," says Paul Applebaum, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. Party pressure forced Eagleton out; he was replaced by R. Sargent Shriver, a former ambassador to France. McGovern's fans blamed Eagleton for his 49-state loss to Richard M. Nixon.
“Insane people easily detect the nonsense of other people.”
— John Hallam.
John Hallam (1833–1900) was a merchant, and alderman, living in Toronto, Canada. He is best known for being the prior owner of Chorley Park, a large estate, that backed on to the valley of the Don River, acquired after his death, on which was constructed an opulent official residence for the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
“The difference between an insane man and a fool, Locke says, is, that a fool from right principles draws a wrong conclusion, while an insane person draws a just inference from false principles.”
“If we feel our way into the human secrets of the sick person, the madness also reveals its system, and we recognize in the mental illness merely an exceptional reaction to emotional problems which are not strange to us. --" The Content of the Psychoses
— Carl Jung
“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”
— Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. Jung worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. Jung established himself as an influential mind of his time, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, conducting a lengthy correspondence, still paramount to their joint vision of human psychology. He is highly regarded as one of the most influential psychologists of all time.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) was published in 2022. It involved more than 200 experts, the majority of whom were involved in the development of DSM-5. In addition, four cross-cutting review groups (Culture, Sex and Gender, Suicide, and Forensic) reviewed all the chapters, focusing on material involving their specific expertise. A Work Group on Ethnoracial Equity and Inclusion ensure that appropriate attention to risk factors like racism and discrimination and the use of non-stigmatizing language. DSM-5-TR includes a new diagnosis, prolonged grief disorder and new symptom codes that allow clinicians to indicate the presence or history of suicidal behavior and nonsuicidal self-injury. Some necessary clarifications to certain diagnostic criteria were reviewed and approved by the DSM Steering Committee, as well as the APA Assembly and Board of Trustees.
In addition, DSM-5-TR includes a comprehensive review of the impact of racism and discrimination on the diagnosis and manifestations of mental disorders.
I wished to look briefly at the Native American view of mental health much out of curiosity. Truly we may look at these people now as being afflicted with mental health issues, perhaps more so and with incorrect assumptions than with others. I wished to get an idea of pre-colonial times how the American Indian would have considered the mentally ill. I must say I didn’t find an easy “web search answer.” But I found this site interesting. The figure below is found in the article.
“Among one AIAN (American Indian and Alaska Native) group, the North Plains people, the concept of mental illness was imposed in 1889 when the first federal mental hospital for an ethnic group, ‘The Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians,’ was established. It was believed that a ‘separate institution for Native Americans was needed because they had unique mental health afflictions.’ The asylum was developed during a time when the US Congress had passed a federal law that prohibited AIAN people from practicing their own customs and the spiritual rituals indigenous to their culture and ways of life. Indeed, AIAN ceremonies and spiritual rituals were considered criminal activities and were punishable by federal law.”
Yet, those “unlawful” spiritual rituals and ceremonies are central to Native culture, which is, in turn, central to a Native American community. One Native American healthcare provider noted that, “belonging to a community is so important to native people, and so someone coming from an individual culture that is based on individualism might miss that whole thing.” “Native culture is a system of care even though it is not classified as such,” said another.
“AIAN groups stress the development of the inner life, which is reflected in the outer world through respect for all things. Likewise, the events of the outer world speak to inner processes for the person…that is to say, every event is in relation to all other events, regardless of time, space, or physical existence. Health exists only when there are balance and harmony in the inner and outer domains of life. In the relational worldview, helpers and healers are taught to understand problems through the balances and imbalances in the person’s relational world. Furthermore, they are taught to see and accept complex interrelationships that can be influenced by entering the world of the client and manipulating the balance-imbalance phenomena.”
So that ends my look at the phenomenon affecting our country so dramatically right now. I believe it is a very severe problem of epic proportions, which the anti-science, anti-education mindset being the most serious handicap and threat to health. Perhaps you agree.
40th posting, May 26, 2023