The changing definition of mental health

“She’s a strong woman. She knows what she wants and she goes after it. She doesn’t take crap from anybody.” This was how a young female patient described a friend.

“And that’s what you consider a mentally healthy person?” I asked.

“Of course. Don’t you?”

“Not necessarily. A person who doesn’t take crap from anybody might be a defensive person.”

This woman assumed that her theory about what constitutes mental health was the one and only theory. In fact theories about mental health differ from society to society, and have changed from one historical period to the next. As fashions change from time to time, so do the characteristics that are valued.

During the later stages of the Roman Empire, mental health was seen as being open-minded to any and all forms of sexuality, from beastiality to incest. Those who did not subscribe to this “civilized” open-mindedness were considered old-fashioned and, of course, not well adjusted mentally.

During the Holy Roman Empire, mental health was linked to one’s devotion to God, the Father, and the Holy Ghost. Those who were not believers were “heathens” and were seen as mentally disturbed and possessed by the devil.

During the communist revolution in Russia, rich capitalists were seen a mentally ill while revolutionaries like Marx and Lenin viewed themselves as mentally healthy people who would restore sanity and equality to humanity.

In Nazi Germany, the Nazis regarded themselves as mentally healthy people who wanted to return their beloved Germany back to a state of health; this meant ridding Germany of the mentally ill people (the Jews, etc.) who had brought Germany down.

In our own era we have many standards of mental health from the mainstream to the extreme. Those who practice a fundamentalist religion believe that devout practice of their religious rituals constitutes mental health, and they consider all who don’t practice these rituals as unhealthy. Those who subscribe to today’s liberal ideology equate mental health with fighting for liberal causes and mental illness with opposing liberal causes. Those who subscribe to conservative ideas equate mental health with fighting for conservative causes and mental illness with opposing conservative causes.

There is one standard of mental health that has been around for more than two thousand years. It is the standard associated with certain aspects of Eastern and Western philosophies. One thinks of Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and Taoism. And one thinks also of Socrates, Plato and Sigmund Freud.

This standard of mental health focuses not on having the right belief or the right cause, not on being morally superior or defeating those who are inferior. Rather it concentrates on self-knowledge, on being in tune with one’s feelings and in harmony with others and the world. It concentrates on a life focused on service to others, rather than on gratifying the self.

This standard of mental health, of course, has never appealed to the great majority. Because it’s only reward is inner peace. Who cares about that?