I am not aware of any single human being who has ever been adopted by mental health professionals, doctors- sociologists, psychologists or psychiatrists- as an instance of definitive sanity... a model thereof. I would like to interview such a person, if ever they appeared.
If the mental health experts do not provide instances of mental wellbeing (and its implied 'sanity') there can be no adequate standard of a wellness by which a malady is indicated. It is clear enough to me that some people are "off the wall", and I would not advocate that such a person, while they demonstrate such chaos of mind, is in some way sane. To observe 'insanity', then, is not necessarily a difficult task. But is it always a simple one? Is it ever fair to say that those who behave normally and function 'happily' within a culture are "sane"? How may we describe sanity, and is anyone guaranteed to remain 'sane' their whole life long? What is it that takes a contented human from well-being to an 'un-well being'?
In the 1960's my ex-girl friend's brother, on the street one day, suggested that it was then "fashionable" to be 'down and out' and that I should try to find some consolation in this. I did not, because I was down and out! If a miserable and confused person could be 'lifted up' by such an observation, he would immediately lose his supposed 'fashionability'! Given that loss, what would I have left, but the constructs that enabled my own depression, fear and sorrow? What I 'needed' from that young man was his sister!
Like so many others, I resent the inferences of the language of the mental health business. They operate as if to preclude a person from the domain of normalcy and of dignity. This is because our western ( and Eastern?) social structures have not observed the "Identity of Love". When Love is known to be a Being and the Foundational Element of Life Itself, Amidst which we all Are, the notion of 'separative selves' can be dropped. Each 'separate' person will be recognized to be integral/inherent aspects of a 'fluid' Whole. The Family of Humanity is not an idealization, but is a Reality. Argumentative 'differences' have been used as reasons for dissension, and account for a planet of seemingly endless divisions.
If we look at an ant colony, it would preposterous to assert that no community spirit there abides. Something over and above the physical forms of these ants enables them to work as a synchronous group. (To say that the ants' DNA explains their behaviour is like saying that my driver's license exonerates me from dangerous driving!) I venture to say that ants are neither communist nor capitalist, and work together for grander purpose. The small size and large numbers of the ants allows us to readily see what is operative throughout the animal world. Beasts without 'reasons', except when survival is at stake, show 'respect' for their species, and often times, beyond their species. This is part of the operative Realty of Love that sustains All Being and beings. But Love is invisible and cannot be packaged, weighed or manipulated. It has, thus, avoided the acknowledgements that Science otherwise offers observable phenomena.
The sanity of my neighbour depends upon mine! The health of a country depends upon each of its citizens. And the well-being of a planet depends upon the observation of Humanity that we share a Universal Sustenance- partly physical, and Entirely Divine: that of Love Itself.
Unless we see beyond the limits of history and tradition enough to realize and appreciate that Love is not an effect or affectation, but is Truth Itself, not less real than our very breaths, we will continue to defend our separate 'identities' and deny the Identity of Love, our 'individual' and communal causation.
In as much as religions are cradled and propagated
via the written word, they have lent themselves to argument,
distortion and dissension. Religions, worldwide have failed, each
and all, to convince others that they are the One and Only True
Religion... because they are not. If they were, surely their
'case' would be clear, indomitable and loving- and even then, its
case would, of need, be heard. So long as the
governments and agencies that trade certifications and
compliances fail to incorporate the realities of metaphysical
substance ( ie. Love Itself, the Spontaneous Benign Spirit of
Life Itself), invented "principles" will continue to be
devised and cited as "laws" ...and the necessities of
sharing, trust and volunteered creations will remain as
'eccentric'... and populations will be indoctrinated to resort to
Father Superior (government) and not to Sister Initiative ( innate
will). The mental health of the many, and the mental illness of
the few, all are subject to the 'Co-Operative' that is Life.
When the 'merits of competition' disintegrate before the benefits
of cooperation, the isolationism that accompanies "every man
for himself" will die. The invitations to life and the
celebrations of freedom borne of birth will foster widespread
mental and emotional wellbeing and spontaneously provide the
model and resort for the 'psychically displaced'- an evident
alternative to madness- whose joy is desirable. Those who are insane have left their former 'sanity' behind. Unless they are offered something superior to that 'abandoned' sadness, how will they manoeuvre or change? The remedy for mental illness is joy and is fostered through Love and actual joyfulness. (There is nothing more loathsome to a depressed person than someone feigning happiness! Such is a sacrilege to the impoverished soul!)
Mental illness, like poverty, is a bi-product of the inequities of a society. As the obscenely rich deplete social resources, the obscenely myopic deplete the moral reserves of a culture. Hypocrisy sits awkwardly on the shoulders of the intuitive. Too many of high ideals find scant support for their dreams, and fall away in the absence of the support/camaraderie their faiths require. The established orders of religions world-wide have discouraged more than a few souls whose eventual 'respite' is psychiatry! Nothing less than a changed and evolved world will present the remedies for mental illness. Cure is not an ideogram- it is an mature environment.
As no man is an island, bridges must be built. The soul who is 'happy' while his neighbour is sick is not 'sane'.
When the world acknowledges its own innate Unity, the presumed disparity between the 'mentally well' and the 'mentally ill' will be exposed for what it is: the hegemony of fearful selfishness that has written the histories of this planet.
"We Are All One"*. Who is mentally ill ?
David W. Wilson
White Rock, B.C.
Canada
* "We Are All One"- Communion with God- Neale Donald Walsch, Putnam Pub.