Mental problems are the most serious and fundamental issue we face today. They affect all of us, and they affect everything we do and we engage in. Mental problems affect how we understand and manage existence and development. They affect how individually we manage and conduct ourselves, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Mental problems are at the root of all the problems we face today -- cultural, religious, political, social, economic-financial and environmental problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations.
How we understand and manage ourselves, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment are defined and governed by what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, by our mental behaviour and actions. Mental problems, problems and difficulties in mental behaviour and actions lead to problems in physical behaviour and actions, in how we conduct ourselves, relate and interact with each other and the world around us, causing problems and difficulties for the individual, for others, society, nature and the natural environment. The traditional approach of psychology, psychiatry and psychiatric medication has not been able to get at the roots of the problem, beyond treating symptoms and consequences, leading to dependence and addiction. Neither has religion, the religious view and approach of dealing with the mind and mental existence been able to address the issue.
Mental problems in their essence are difficulties understanding and managing the mind and mental existence. They are difficulties understanding and managing the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage. The difficulties are not rooted in repressed memories or the biological foundation of the mind and mental existence, the neurological structure and workings of the brain, or our genetic make up. Neither are they rooted in evil forces impressing themselves on, or infesting our mind. The difficulties lie in the intangible, elusive and non-material nature, demands and challenges of the mind and mental existence, and our role and responsibility in them. They are not as self-evident and obvious, and they are not as easily understood and managed as our physical existence and reality. They require more focus and concentration, mental work and effort. The difficulties moreover lie in acting at the level of feelings and emotions, first impressions and instant reactions, and not acting at the level of clarity of mind and understanding, about our experience, the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. (For a detailed discussion of mental problems, nature and causes, results and consequences, and how to deal with them, go to http://www.ihcmd.org/mentalproblems, a free public service website dealing with mental problems through active individual engagement, individual mental work and effort, understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside.)
What is required is a different approach, an approach that addresses the roots of the problem. De-stigmatizing mental problems and demystifying the mind and mental existence through active individual engagement, individual mental work and effort, understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside. Understanding and managing from the inside what takes place, what we do and what we need to do in the mind and mental existence. We need to save the mind and mental existence from science and liberate them from religion. Science is reducing the mind and mental existence to a biological information-processing mechanism, the neurological structure and workings of the brain or the human genetic makeup and genetic evolution. Religion views the mind and mental existence as the human sole and spirit, our connection to a supernatural-spiritual world.
We need to understand and manage the mind and mental existence as the place where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and where we must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. The mind and mental existence is where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. Problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes, success and failure have their roots and beginnings in the mind and mental existence, and it is where answers and solutions must start. (For a more detailed discussion of the mind and mental existence, how to understand and manage them from the inside, go to http://www.ihcmd.org/mentalexistence.htm. You find a lecture presentation, Inside the Mind: Understanding and Managing the Mind and Mental Existence from the Inside, available both in PowerPoint and Acrobat PDF format.)
What is required are education, study and training in conceptual and mental development and growth. Developing at the level of the individual with every individual the conceptual foundation and mental capacity to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. Developing, exercising and practicing the necessary understanding, the natural mental faculties and potential, the natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices, and engage in the required mental work and effort. Establishing the necessary internal mental conditions, clarity of mind and understanding, in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other, the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Dealing with, responding and adjusting to change, changing conditions, demands and challenges when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger problems and difficulties. Engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, correcting, expanding and improving individual understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, expanding and improving whenever necessary and required the understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them. The choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, expanding and improving the mental behaviour and actions, mental work and effort in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them. (For a discussion of education and training in conceptual and mental development you can go to http://www.ihcmd.org/studyandtraining.htm. You will find a lecture presentation, Education and Training in Conceptual and Mental Development: Education and Training for a Sustainable Future, both in PowerPoint and Acrobat PDF format.)
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2 comments:
The assertion that "Mental problems in their essence are difficulties … not rooted in repressed memories or the biological foundation of the mind and mental existence, the neurological structure and workings of the brain, or our genetic make up" seems excessively broad. Clearly diseases of the brain and nervous systems exist. Abnormalities in prenatal development and injuries during birthing produce aberrant brain structures apparent in scans of the skull. Similar aberrance has been linked to specific recessive genes responding to environmental factors.
However, many mental illnesses may reflect society's inability to accept variances in mental perspectives. Methodical attention to minute detail may be viewed as obsessive compulsive behavior. Highly imaginative minds can be seen as delusional. Reactions to persistent social rejection are likely to be regarded as paranoid, even when there is evidence of persecution. The liberation required is not from science or religion, but from society's repressive definition of "normal."
While religion's focus upon morality, with its emphasis on reward or punishment in the afterlife, does not give recognition to the power of the mind beyond the assertion of one's will, it does identify behaviors that harm both the individual and their society such as those exemplified by the "seven deadly sins." These deeply rooted patterns of social (or antisocial. Behaviors have existed since before written history. Clearly such persistent patterns of being have their roots in the primal nature inherent in mechanisms for survival in a less than civilized world.
Science, on the other hand, is concerned with the "how" of human behavior. Devoid of questions as to "why," science focuses on causal links to phenomena. Observed patterns that distinguish neural-chemical activities in "normal" behavior from those symptomatic of marked mental illnesses, suggest palliative pharmacological measures that may produce favorable changes. Each newly recognized association between particular genes and presumed aberrant behaviors plays into the mechanistic mind set of science.
Quantum Reality may bridge natural science and supernatural religion. The limitations that either brings by their definition have not bound the universe that the mind creates for the individual to reside. It is within this transcendent space that one's will may be developed and strengthened. With increased mental focus upon one's spirit, emotions and actions, and of their presence in the world of experience, the mind has a three-dimensional reality enhancing one's ability to live in their immediate Reality effectively.
William 10/15/08 10:15 AM
In understanding and managing the mind and mental existence and dealing with mental problems we need to distinguish and differentiate between the natural conditions, the biological, neurological and genetic roots and foundation of the mind and mental existence on the one hand, and the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage on the other. We need to distinguish and differentiate between illness, disease or malfunctions of the natural conditions, the biological, neurological or genetic foundation of the mind and mental existence, and failing to, errors and mistakes in understanding and managing our role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence and the reasons behind them.
We need to differentiate between the natural mental capacity or potential, and developing and using it. Biological illness may reduce or limit the natural mental capacity or potential, but it does not account for failing to develop and use it. Biological illness may make it more difficult, requiring more mental work and effort to develop and use it, but it does not account for failing to do so.
Illness, disease or malfunctions of the natural conditions, the biological, neurological or genetic foundation of the mind may lead to diminished or reduced mental capacity. Failings, errors or mistakes in understanding and managing our role and responsibility, within the context of our natural mental capacity whatever its limits, in contrast leads to mental problems, problematic mental conditions and states of mind. It leads to mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression.
Illness, disease or malfunctions in the natural conditions, the biological, neurological or genetic foundation of the mind do not account for failing, making errors or mistakes in understanding and managing the mind and mental existence. Treating biological, neurological or genetic illness, disease or malfunctions does not address the reasons for failing, making errors or mistakes understanding and managing the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage our role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence. But through understanding and managing the mind and mental existence we can compensate for the results and consequences of biological, neurological or genetic illness, disease or malfunctions.
Mental problems, problematic mental conditions and states of mind, mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression are not the results and consequences of illness, disease or malfunctions of the natural conditions, the biological, neurological or genetic foundation of the mind and mental existence. They are the results and consequences of failing to deal with, consider and make sense of our experience, the perceptions, sensations, feelings, thoughts and ideas that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. They are the results and consequences of failing to establish a sense of order and stability, clarity of mind and understanding, a sense of certainty and security in the mind, about what enters the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them.
Mental problems, problematic mental conditions and states of mind are the results and consequences of operating on the level of feelings and emotions, first impressions and instant reactions, to experience, perceptions, sensations and feelings, thoughts and ideas and the conditions that lie behind them, and not operating on the level of clarity of mind and understanding about them. They are the results and consequences of failing to deal with, respond and adjust to change, changing experience, conditions, demands and challenges when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger mental problems and difficulties. Mental problems, problematic mental conditions and states of mind moreover are the results and consequences of failing to develop, exercise and practice the natural mental potential, natural mental powers and abilities, whatever their extend and limits, the necessary and appropriate mental skills and practices, and engage in the mental work and effort, necessary to understand and manage our role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence, consider and make sense of what enters the mind and awareness, experience, perceptions, sensations, feelings, thoughts and ideas, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them, establish clarity of mind and understanding about them.
The reasons behind failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage our role and responsibility, failing to develop and use our natural mental potential, natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices and engage in the required mental work and effort, short of consciously refusing to do so, they lie in a lack of the necessary education and training. In turn which is the result of how traditionally we view, understand and deal with the mind, mental existence and mental problems.
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