T.M. Lurhmann is an anthrolologist, psychological anthropologist and essayist. Much of what she writes is prescient. Her recent piece, Redefining Mental Illness, in the Sunday, January 18, 2015 NY Times gives one much to contemplate. Here are some extracts, reordered for clarity.
"Mental and behavioral problems are the biggest single cause of disability on the planet. In low- and middle-income countries, about four of five of those disabled by these illnesses do not receive treatment for them. The World Health Organization estimates that one in four people will have an episode of mental illness in their lifetime."
"Diagnoses were neither particularly useful nor accurate for understanding the brain, and should no longer be used to guide research."
"The implications are that social experience plays a significant role in who becomes mentally ill, when they fall ill and how their illness unfolds. We should view illness as caused not only by brain deficits but also by abuse, deprivation and inequality, which alter the way brains behave. Illness thus requires social interventions, not just pharmacological ones."
"One outcome of this rethinking of mental illness could be that talk therapy will regain some of the importance it lost when the new diagnostic system was young. And we know how to do talk therapy. That doesn’t rule out medication: while there may be problems with the long-term use of antipsychotics, many people find them useful when their symptoms are severe."