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The case for eliminating the concept of ‘mental health’
The Spectator ^ | March 2, 2024 | Theodore Dalrymple

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: mentalhealth
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To: Tell It Right

Been there done that. Back in the 80’s our marriage counselor told me that he had never seen anyone as self centered and selfish as my wife at the time. He as much as told me to move on. It was difficult because being divorced was never my plan. Move on I did. Whereupon I met a beautiful Christian woman. We had two kids of our own on top of my prior two kids which we also raised. We are now retired and are as happy as we were on day one.


41 posted on 03/23/2024 10:38:16 AM PDT by Sam Clements
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To: srmanuel
I see kids as young as 8 in my hospitals psych unit.

Last year we had a ten year old boy who beat his sister nearly to death with the metal end of a vacuum hose because he said "She wouldn't listen to me''. Last week we had an 8 year old girl who set her parents bed on fire. While they were sleeping in it. One of the nurses told me the kid got a hold of a small can of gas , splashed it on the bed and lit it on fire. Her parents managed to wake up in time but this is an 8 year old kid! I'm no ''mental health'' expert but I've got to say there is a societal s**t storm coming in about ten or fifteen years and it is going to be Hell on Earth. I hope the Good Lord takes me before it hits.

42 posted on 03/23/2024 10:43:46 AM PDT by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: drwoof
I agree. The fact is women need men far more than men need women.

Marriage is really an artificial construct.In higher order mammals males mate with females and then generally move on.

43 posted on 03/23/2024 10:51:25 AM PDT by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009
I had my children just last night tell me that nearly everyone they know has ADHD or mental health issues!

They all have attention-seeking behavior.

44 posted on 03/23/2024 11:17:35 AM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump. A)
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To: Sam Clements

Much the same here. Except I didn’t leave my ex. I waited till she left me. Years later married again to a gorgeous woman who loves the Lord and volunteering in church as much as I do. I got custody of my two kids, and we finished raising them along with the two kids my already had. My wife retired and I’m quasi-retired, both in our 50’s. I’ll probably retire fully at 57 or 58.


45 posted on 03/23/2024 11:58:27 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Twotone

People should not be dismissive of others who assert they have experienced extreme emotional pain, such as depression.

You could just as easily dismiss someone’s claims of debilitating physical pain.

Just because you have not experienced it does not mean it does not exist.

Be careful of judging and condemning others lest you likewise be tested,

Emotional pain is more subjective than physical pain because the cause is not always so obvious.

I am close to a young man who struggles with debilitating emotions due to childhood trauma. He lost both of his parents as a child and was also sexually abused. He has been able to get a good education, hold down a well-paying job, and work on recovery while coping with things like PTSD and severe depression. But it is always a struggle.

I’ve had my share of emotional pain also. To limit your beliefs to only those things you have personally experienced is a kind of mental illness itself. Cynicism is not a healthy mindset.

Now, if you want to question how we as a society treat mental health, I get that.


46 posted on 03/23/2024 11:59:52 AM PDT by unlearner (I, Robot: I think I finally understand why Dr. Lanning created me... ;-)
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To: Twotone

Actual mental health, as understood by professional psychologists, once meant the ability to adapt to the requirements of reality, ie to be able to love and to work. As the field has been usurped the last forty years or so by a bunch of females, this definition has gone by the boards.


47 posted on 03/23/2024 12:59:55 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative. )
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To: MayflowerMadam
Of course. I'm a physician. Each of the medical specialties attracts certain personality types, and generally part of the attraction is personal problems which need attention. Psychiatry tends to attract people with psychological issues. Orthopedics tends to attract people who are interested in sports. Etc.

But this happens everywhere.

My wife is a musician. Each of the instruments of an orchestra attracts certain personality types.

48 posted on 03/23/2024 1:07:51 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Pray for the Enlightenment of the Democrats.)
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To: ryderann
Thanks, Ann.

You know what got me through everything? And it was very tough! I came close to suicide several times as a teenager. (I'm now a normal human being.) (My grandson said, "Well, normal enough.") (I thought that was impertinent. I ought to wear him out!) (I think I will!) It was this:

Even as a small child, I knew that God was with me guiding me and protecting me. Even in the depths of despair, I knew this.

At one point, I asked Jesus Christ (Who is the Persona of God to Whom I can most easily relate) to lead me, promising that I would follow Him anywhere, even through the gates of hell, and that my only condition was that He protect me from any and all evil influences. He has led me to strange places and situations but always growing nearer and nearer to Him.

49 posted on 03/23/2024 1:19:45 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Pray for the Enlightenment of the Democrats.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET
"*You should have found a better shrink.*
Think of a foster child going from home to home. Get old-doesn’t help.

I was in a situation exactly that dire. I found a good shrink. Today I am healthy, wealthy, and wise and have a life I wish everyone could have. Lots of good things come with age--notably wisdom--but only if you grow, evolve, learn, and seek TRUTH.

"*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.* Retirement is that slippery slope. I’d blame-partially-Social Security."

I've been retired now for 32 years. I haven't drifted into mass insanity yet. I couldn't be happier! Of course, I did earn the wealth that enabled me to retire at age 53, but that wasn't necessary; I would have done the same if I had inherited it.

"*Personally, I wish I were Amish. But that wouldn’t work for everyone* That’s because resentment builds as others move ahead."

You can become Amish if you want to.

"*A swift kick in the seat of the pants straightens out a person’s thinking quicker than any pill or analysis.* Not for women. I’d give them shelter and treatment. The men? You got that right."

Wrong! My mother was a woman. She needed a swift kick in the seat, and she got it. So was and did my sister! They both deserved it! I should have kicked them harder! Men and women are alike in this respect, though, in contrast to the stupidity that the wokies would love to foist on the world men and women differ extremely in most respects.

50 posted on 03/23/2024 1:27:49 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Pray for the Enlightenment of the Democrats.)
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To: Savage Beast

Wowser. Have you thought about a biography? I sure would like to get through to Mike Lindell and ask him to put a book together of stories from folks like you and those who God has spoken too.


51 posted on 03/23/2024 1:33:12 PM PDT by ryderann
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To: Savage Beast

“Each of the instruments of an orchestra attracts certain personality types.”

I’m a pianist, and I’m boring. Maybe we all are - LOL!


52 posted on 03/23/2024 1:50:38 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Fraud vitiates everything." - SCOTUS)
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To: unlearner

I have suffered from depression, so I understand that there’s pain that seems non-physical. But there are often physical reasons for these things - hormonal issues, for instance. And I understand that PTSD is real. But our society has turned emotional issues into a fetish & we don’t do first what might solve the problem without medication.

Even folks with physical pain have to get up & deal with their reality each day. Mental illness should not be an excuse for being a responsible person.


53 posted on 03/23/2024 2:52:58 PM PDT by Twotone (We have to stop punishing ourselves for considering things that once seemed crazy. - B. Weinstein)
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To: ryderann

I think God speaks to all of us.


54 posted on 03/23/2024 5:21:05 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Pray for the Enlightenment of the Democrats.)
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To: Twotone

we have now been forced to entertain the mental illness of many today


55 posted on 03/23/2024 5:43:12 PM PDT by ronnie raygun
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