Guardian article challenging medical psychiatry

[margaret turner]

I’m a psychologist – and I believe we’ve been told devastating lies about mental health | Sanah Ahsan | The Guardian

I’m a psychologist – and I believe we’ve been told devastating lies abou... Society’s understanding of mental health issues locates the problem inside the person - and ignores the politics...

This articulates so much of what some of us have been thinking for some time!

Margaret.

[Geof Lynn]

Thank you for sharing this, Margaret - an excellent article. The viewpoint is basically a Marxist one, which suggests (among much else, of course), that our thinking reflects material reality, in particular economic and political reality. Thus the fact that poor people suffer more mental illness is hardly surprising. The question is what we do about it and how these ideas impact our working lives. The issue of how 'political' our response should be, is one for everyone, especially those working within the mental health services, to grapple with.

Geof

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[margaret turner]

Dear Geof,

Thanks for your response and I'm interested in how you frame the issue as political/Marxist - which of course it is, but not that only. It's also a matter of empathy, of imaginative understanding, something I believe is best nurtured through the arts, especially literature. When I was a social work tutor at Coventry University I sometimes shared a poem in preference to a theoretical text! Robert Frost's 'Death of the Hired Man' sprang instantly to mind, though too long to put here. Instead I'll post one that portrays a little of youthful experience:

Happiness

BY RAYMOND CARVER

So early it's still almost dark out.

I'm near the window with coffee,

and the usual early morning stuff

that passes for thought.

When I see the boy and his friend

walking up the road

to deliver the newspaper.

They wear caps and sweaters,

and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.

They are so happy

they aren't saying anything, these boys.

I think if they could, they would take

each other's arm.

It's early in the morning,

and they are doing this thing together.

They come on, slowly.

The sky is taking on light,

though the moon still hangs pale over the water.

Such beauty that for a minute

death and ambition, even love,

doesn't enter into this.

Happiness. It comes on

unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,

any early morning talk about it.

Best wishes,

Margaret.

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[Linden Lynn]

Dear Margaret, 

That is a very beautiful poem and catches the worth of connection. And too, the fleeting, in the moment, nature of happiness. So absorbed in that moment, it is only after, that we sometimes reflect and know it for what it is, happiness.

There is a follow up article in the Guardian again referring to the importance of seeing mental health and wellbeing linked to the nature and structure of society.

I find both interesting and hope they will inspire change.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/08/the-link-between-mental-health-and-social-conditions.

Good wishes

Linden 

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