Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Medicine's big new battleground: does mental illness really exist? [View all]LuvNewcastle
(17,910 posts)mass shootings. We discussed a lot of things that might be factors in making a person commit such an act and most of those factors were environmental and social factors.
So I agree that a lot of mental variations are due to conflicts with other people and their constructs. Many of our mental ills have nothing to do with individual brain chemistry, but are understandable reactions to intolerable or threatening circumstances. However, it is much easier to change a single person's reactions than to start a movement and change a society.
The sciences of Psychiatry and Psychology are all about fitting in. The whole idea is to treat people until their views and habits are within the perceived social norm. Finding the truth about the proper way humans should behave is a secondary consideration, if it's considered at all. The thoughts and behavior of the subject might be the more correct perceptions and actions, but the idea is to make the individual conform to the majority.
I think it would be a good thing if many different mental variations come to be seen as valid instead of being looked upon as needing treatment. More viewpoints equal new ideas, and some of those ideas could be the very ones humans need to advance and make life more rewarding.