Mental Illness: The Scientifically Based Political Story

Categorizing symptoms and behaviors into diagnostic labels called mental illnesses can have serious implications for the lives of millions of people. Political powers want people to know about mental illness and the serious effects it has on our health. Scientific studies are being generated to inform best practices that will ensure appropriate procedures.

When a person is diagnosed with a mental illness the treatment that is scientifically recommended is to take a medication, correct irrational thoughts, and receive psychoeducation about how to become more functional. There have been numerous cases where this scientifically based approach has worked by relieving the symptoms and behaviors that brought people into services. However, what about the consequences of this one-size-fits-all approach as to how we story our problems? What if a person does not want to experience the side effects of medication? What if a person does not accept that their thoughts are irrational? What if a person does not want to live their life based on what they are told is functional in our western mainstream society? The answer, from those who propose this one-size-fits-all approach, is that it is ethically sound to do the following: A)Teach people how the benefits of the medication outweigh the negative side effects; B) Reinforce that personal problems are organic in nature; C) Confront people about how their thinking has become more irrational based on the fact of disagreement; D) Diagnose people with personality disorders based upon their refusal for trying to be "functional" within the western mainstream definition of the term.

Now these practices are being seriously questioned even by those who have constructed the story. Studies have been conducted considering brain wave activity (1). What most psychiatrists won't tell you is that our brain wave activity may change given the stories, not irrational thoughts, that we develop about our lives. It is a fictional story that we can separate our brain organ from other parts of our body, environment and spirit .

Some experts have gone as far as to say that the DSM is only useful to have fun playing diagnosing games at dinner parties (2). Given that the mental illness story has been determined to be invalid and unreliable, it appears that it would put the scientific studies of mental illness into the category of fictionally based political story telling. How can people scientifically prove a fictional story?

A lot of times, the medical model story actually makes the symptom or behaviors worse. When it gets worse the medical model story may get stronger as the symptoms and behaviors worsen. The reason the story is maintained, regardless the damage done, appears to be political motivated.

For further reading about this issue, I highly recommend the article called "Is Diagnosis A Disaster?: A Constructionist Trialogue" (3).

Footnotes:

1) http://www.corante.com/brainwaves/20030401.shtml#30168

2) http://www.newtherapist.com/dinner12.html

3) http://www.brieftherapynetwork.com/trialogue.htm