Discussion Philosophy of mental health/mentall illness I: Inmendham on 'depression'

[Jean Améry]

It is often said that suicidal behaviour stems from mental illness chief among them mood disorders like 'depression'. On this forum aswell many people identify as 'mentally ill'. Of course everyone has a right to their opinion but I do not agree with the characterisation of consistently and profoundly low mood as constituting disease/illness. Especially since it comes with such a heavy price tag in terms of discrimination, stripping of rights, sometimes losing one's livelihood, losing one's dignity and even freedom.

Since the stigma attached to suicide and the prosecution of the suicidal is clearly tied to this notion (so called 'mental health laws' allowing for the incarceration of the suicidal by psychiatry with the blessing of society and the state) and even rests on this assumption it's worthy of investigation as a chief criterium in any involuntary commitment law or statute is always 'mental illness'.

Note that this cannot and therefore has never been proven objectively (i.e. person X has mental illness Y as shown by test Z) by anyone: in practice a psychiatrist or other 'mental health professional' (in some jurisdictions even any MD) offers his or her opinion and it is magically treated as an indisputable fact upon which a person who isn't guilty of a crime is nevertheless convicted and condemned to incarceration and violation of one's human dignity through the torture of forced drugging, electrocution, emotional abuse and sometimes forced feeding as if he/she were an animal.

I do not have the time nor the inclination at this point to offer a thorough answer to or at least analysis of this problem at his point but I think it's worth offering this viewpoint from a man whom I consider to be wise and a true philosopher: Gary Inmendham ('Inmendham' is his pseudonym).



Key points:

• 'mental health' is not a fact but a matter of perspective: it's impossible to properly define it and clearly deliniate 'mental illness' from being 'mentally healthy'
• the moral evaluation of 'depression' as sick, bad and unhealthy springs from the philosophical position of optimism
• optimism isn't the product of reason but of nature
• nature has equipped us with a system that rewards certain behaviours: we are in fact addicted to life and whatever seems to reward our cravings (consumption, reproduction)
• addiction can never be a sure sign of (mental) health yet this is this society's yardstick of 'mental health'
• 'depression' might very well mean one has seen through the illusion and observed life as what it is: a futile, pointless game that we simply cannot win
• extreme 'depression' might be the simple acknowledgement that it would indeed be better not to exist at all
• this philosophical position is called pessimism (he does not identify it as such in this video but it's what it's commonly called): the antithesis of optimism
• pessimism (which may or may not lead to suicide) might very well be the most accurate description and evaluation of life on earth and thus the highest wisdom (or 'point of clarity' as Inmendham calls it)

I would add that any moral perspective on life (value judgement) can never be objectively proven and therefore not scientifically established. Yet this is exactly what psychiatry claims to rest on: solid science. If one accepts the thesis of 'mental health' as a perspective instead of an observable fact or logical deduction based on facts it follows that psychiatry/psychopathology is indeed not a science but a sort of religion or moral system.

 

[allgood]

You could argue this any which way, I found Ernest Becker's 'Denial Of Death' an interesting take; but no matter how much you view your emotional state as a perspective- it doesn't change.

I would say that when speaking about most other 'mental conditions' eg. schizophrenia, BP, it's actually not a matter of perspective.

 

[GreyMonkey]

This seems like a set of arguments used to justify depression and low mood.

And while some kind of philosophical depression may exist whereby life functioning is not severely impacted and questions of the meaning of life play a dominant role in a period of inner reflection.... this would not be accompanied by suicidal desires.

I don't like the term mental illness, at least not in the way it tends to be thought of as a permanent condition. However the labels are based on a set of criteria for diagnosis and can be useful in understanding what issues and behaviours may be presenting. What we do with these diagnosis usually isn't so helpful though, sadly. Still got a long way to go in conventional treatment and approach to mental afflictions.

Anyway suicidal depression I believe is a sign of deep disturbance occurring in childhood development, I.e. childhood trauma, which includes the subtle and so easily overlooked impacts of emotional neglect and misattunement.

The human organism is designed to thrive and live. Wild animals don't get depressed.

From this perspective it's not so much a "what's wrong with you" it's rather "what happened to you".

Knowing this cognitively is one thing however, resolving the accumulated stored emotional charge from these traumas is an entirely different and difficult process.

Seeing through the game of life is a source of freedom for one that has connection to their inmate vitality. Its only when that vitality is blocked that we could see the possibility of never winning and falling into the extreme depressive states of despair, hopelessness and the unending desire to die.

Doesn't make this any less real or ease the suffering of those of us who can feel the heavy pull of pointlessness and the yearning to escape the hell that is our own mind. It is truly devastating to not have access to our life force. To be crippled by fear, shame, self loathing, resentment, grief, hurt.

If it's any consolation, none of those things are truly us. They were an internalised feeling structure by a child trying to make sense of a failure of environment the only way they could - by blaming themselves.

I think suicide is an attempt to kill that wounded child inside because it won't stop its incessant screaming and we just don't know how to deal with it, let alone love it. We become fused with that child aspect and then fail to function as an adult and then of course life is an intolerable experience of failure and misfortune.

I wish that all of us could have had safe and secure loving, supportive childhoods. Life would be a lot different.

Anyway that was a ramble tangent. Any which way I support ones decision to attempt to live and recover or end it if it became too much.

I just wish that our governments invested more effort on treating those suffering with suicidal desire with more care and support, or just allow it to be easier to end life if that determined to.

 

[SinisterKid]

The glass half full/empty analogy, in my opinion, just goes to show that we as a species do not possess a suitable vocabulary to voice what mental health or mental ill health actually is or isn't.