THE HISTORY OF MENTAL HEALTH
"Psychology" has a long past but a short history".
As a science, it begun about 100 years ago when Wilhealm Wundt opened a psychological laboratory in Germany. Although interest in mind and behaviour is at least as old as human records. It wasn't so long ago when mentally ill people were attributed to having a variety of things wrong with them, these ranged from possession by demons, witchcraft, exposure to moon rays, an imbalance of bodily fluids, etc.
Ever since the Middle Ages insanity has been blamed on possession by the devil. Women were burnt at the stake and in the 19th century, asylum keepers thought that a sudden shock could restore reason. There was also the practice of abandoning adults and children whose intelligence or behaviour did not measure up to society's standards. Sadly this still goes on in some parts of the world.
Western civilization doesn't consciously approve of "insane asylums" but sadly from recent viewing of television documentaries of 'care homes'. All we have done is given them a different name, they now have less qualified staff to take care of them and the tax payers are lining the pockets of private business owners and the people who are suffering the most are the most vulnerable people in our society today. Especially the ones with learning difficulties, they can't tell us about the atrocities that are happening to them.
Scientists in other fields, such as physics and chemistry often criticise psychology as "soft" and reflect doubt on the validity as a science. Some doubts are reasonable. Is it really valid to apply results of animal experiments to human behaviour, just because the animals' nervous systems are somewhat like our own? Some scientists do agree that 'talk therapy" has helped many people, but it still bothers some scientists that after 100 years there is no scientific evidence to prove how and why it works for some and not for others.
Furthermore, one philosopher Patricia Churchland of the University of California at San Diego, has pointed out that the portion of the brain reachable by talk-our conscious, thinking, introspective self -is "only a little bubble on the froth", beneath which the huge preponderance of brain activity proceeds in effect, on its own.
Its also interesting to note that psychotherapy is alien to most non-Western cultures. In 1988, there were only four psychiatrists in all of Tokyo.
Theorists and Theories: The Pioneers of Psychology
Until the end of the 18th century, the study of human nature, which we call psychology, belonged to philosophy. Since then, psychology has been expanded and altered by the work of scientists such as those listed below:
Wilhelm Wundt, German, 1832-1920
His approach is called structuralist because it sought the underlying structure of the mind through testing the subject's perception of externally presented stimuli. Wundt's work influenced the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, originator of the classification of mental diseases.
William James, American, 1842-1910
America's first prominent psychologist, James published The Principles of Psychology in 1890. He emphasised adaptation to the environment and became known as a functionalist for his premise that our behaviour is not random but serves a purpose, or function.
Sigmund Freud, Austrian, 1856-1939
Sigmund Freud's name overshadows all others in psychology. He is still seen as a true intellectual revolutionary, he said we were all born with powerful, instinctual drives, which must be tamed if we are to become civilized. The conflict between gratification or repression of these drives leads to neuroses and psychoses. He searched for the explanations of neurotic behaviour.
Freud believed that to get rid of unacceptable impulses (anger or lust) the patient represses them. But they survive in the unconsciousness and produce anxiety, guilt, compulsive behaviour, depression, or all of these. Freud introduced 'the talking therapy' known as psychoanalysis as a treatment for these conflicts and this is still the basis of therapy for
mental disorders to this day. It's bizarre that Freud used ancient Greek drama and legend to illustrate his theories of consciousness when you take into account that sexual deviation, incest and child abuse was normal and acceptable behaviour in these ancient cultures. How could he ever think that our 20th century consciousness was the same?
If we review the era and continent where Freud originated, its not surprising how he came to his conclusions. We have the combination of a Victorian era with sexual repression and its subordination of women, and a war torn Edwardian era. In addition, he came from Austria which had a strong German influence, not known for their warmth or compassion. I am not surprised that during the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, people repressed their feelings, they lived in fear of the calamity of war and women lived in a male dominated society. It was an era of ultimate repression. We are the results of this era and we are only now working our way through the repercussions.
From what I have read of Freud he obviously had a real issue with women and their sexuality or maybe he had a problem with his own, or his mother? It's reported that he once said "What does woman want?" I can see why his theories went down well with the male dominated medical health profession, his theories sat nicely on the lap of the patrichial society. Sigmund Freud also thought that verbal slips of the tongue represented hidden thoughts or repressed wishes but the latest research shows that Freudian slips are often nothing more then speech errors due to memory lapses and inattention.
What does surprise me is that most of psychology and psychiatry is to this day, mainly based on Freud's theories. At the end of the day it was a theory and not a proven fact! So where does that leave the mental health profession in the 21st century? A mental health profession that supports the use of hard drugs to suppress even more thought-led emotions!
Alfred Binet, French 1857-1910
By developing quantitative tests to measure intelligence in children and introducing the concept of mental age. Binet hugely expanded the practical application of psychology.
Carl Jung, Swiss, 1875-1961
This is the man that I have the utmost respect for, I believe that he is the only influential psychologist that has got anywhere near understanding consciousness at the most complex spiritual levels. He was definitely ahead of his time. Jung defined the ideally healthy human personality as one that has achieved a balance between the conscious and the unconscious, between interior and exterior life. He understood the importance of the soul.
He said "For thousands of years rites of initiation have been teaching rebirth from the spirit, yet man has forgotten the meaning of divine intiatory procreation in our times. I simply believe that some part of the human soul is not subject to the laws of space and time. This causes him to suffer a loss of soul, a condition that sadly is everywhere present today. Why is it when many counsellors are being trained, Carl Jung's teachings are not included in their education? Is it because he recognises that we do have a soul and this consciousness can have an effect on our personalities, mental reactions and karmic plays. I am not surprised that Carl Jung fell out with Sigmund Freud over his theories.
John B Watson, American 1878-1958
Founder of behaviourism, Watson believed that springs from conditioning and that conditioning is the most important force in shaping who we are. Environment, not heredity, counts.
Karl Lashley, American 1890-1958
Through intensive neuropsychological investigation,Lashley concluded that the whole brain, not just specific areas, responded to new information. He named his thesis equipotentiality,
Abraham H. Maslow American, 1908-1970
We have "an active will toward health an impulse towards growth, or toward the actualization of human potentialities". We reach our full potential through self-actualization, which includes peak experiences of almost mystical ecstasy.
Karen Horney, American 1885-1952
We are shaped primarily by interpersonal relationships, rather than by Freudian biological drives. Personality disorders are misdirected efforts to live with anxiety that originates in "the feeling a child has of being in a hostile world".
WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?
Consciousness changes from culture to culture, from civilisation to civilisation. We in the western world in the 21st century are beginning to catch up with the east in our belief that the mind is not only in the brain but in every cell of our body. And every cell has a mind of its own. There are a number of levels to our consciousness, both in depth and in breadth. Like an onion, it has layer upon layer, it is mult-dimensional.
The breadth of consciousness includes the following: The conscious mind processes everything from our environment, the sub-conscious mind buries all that we do not want to accept, our un-conscious mind is the result of the karmic plan, it is this un-conscious that brings back experiences relating to past lives and provides a diversity of karmic challenges that we must learn to overcome. It also includes our genetic level of consciousness with the inherited personality traits not only of our parents but our ancestors as well.
HUMANE THERAPY - COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE AND THERAPIES
The idea of humane therapy is not new. Two centuries ago, care of mental patients took a dramatic turn for the better when Philippe Pinel became director of the Bicetre asylum in Paris. Rejecting the notion that the mentally ill were possessed by demons. Pinel unchained the inmates and began a programme of kindness. Hippocrates, called the father of medicine, was very modern with his views that mental illness has natural causes and that the brain was the seat of thought and emotion. And, many of today's findings about the brain and behaviour simply amplify Aristotle's assertions that the human psyche(or mind) is a part of the body and that our capacity for reason and moral choice develops as the brain processes more and more data from the senses.
Anaxagoras (c.500BC-c.428BC) believed that the universe came about through the action of a cosmic mind, or nous, which means 'mind' or 'reason' this energy force was made up of an infinite number of particles, or 'seeds' . Seeds were similar to what we would think of today as 'atoms'.
Prevention is the only cure for the increasing mental health problem in the 21st century. If the right help, tools and emotional support were given to people who are depressed in the very early stages then 85% of people would not become mental health patients. Drugs could be replaced by complementary medicine and therapies. This would not only be more humane but would also benefit the long term health and well-being of the patient. If care homes had a small team of holistic healers, again this would be more beneficial to the patients best interests. The universal cosmic law is that energy follows though. In a majority of cases it is the detrimental thought-led emotions that create the depression, which creates the mental health problem in the first place.
SCHIZOPHRENIA
The problem with schizophrenia is that it is another lable given to those people that the medical profession do not understand. Many people that are given this lable, are having a spiritual awakening so from my perspective it is more of a spiritual perspective then the religious one.
I had some discussion with a professor in the US about this, and he agreed that my theory was a very strong possibility, he mentioned one case of a young girl. Her only experience was a recurring satanic dream, it was clear to me after discussion with her over the internet that this was a past life experience that could be healed with past life healing, but yet she had been convinced by the medical professional that she was sick, and as such was on serious medication for schizophrenia.
So going back to religion when Jesus was ridding people of the demons of possession, it is very likely that this was nothing more then removing the dark energy or negative thinking patterns. Healers of consciousness and self development facilitators like myself help people to do this today.
Now with the latest breakthroughs in cellular biology all that metaphysicians have always known is now proven. Dr Bruce Lipton calls his research the 'Biology of Belief' and it is based upon how thoughts, perceptions and beliefs effect one's cells. Also nature-nurture and the environment
www.brucelipton.com. At last science has caught up with consciousness and spirituality, but it will take some time for psychology to catch up with the rest of the cutting edge scientific community.
Mental Health is one of the subjects that I feel very passionate about so please do not hesitate to ask more questions.
Mental Health WILL Change
Love beyond measure
Sacredstar
