Society · Mental health
Changing how we look at mental health
For decades, we have tended to apply mechanistic thinking to the way human beings function. If we take the example of mental health, we have spent — and are still spending — considerable energy on understanding what causes illnesses, what causes suffering. Yet this frame of thought comes with an invisible trap when applied to humans…
In a way, we could say that in France we practise a medicine of illness rather than a medicine of health. In mechanistic thinking, you just have to take the machine apart, look at how each cog works, draw up a sufficiently precise map of it; and when one spot seizes up, you just have to act on the spot that is causing the problem. It is important to see that this mode of thinking is widespread in our society, in many fields, and that it leads us to the idea that to solve a problem, all you need is to know its cause.
But we will see, in the video below — in French — that this may not hold at all when it comes to you and me…
How to cite this article
Besse, J. (2021, October 3). Changing how we look at mental health. Complexe Systémique. https://app.complexe-systemique.com/en_GB/articles/changing-how-we-look-at-mental-health
To go further
- The experiment that shook psychiatry: RosenhanFake patients committed to hospital, and a dizzying question put to psychiatric diagnosis.
- Psychiatry's worrying problemWhy the rising number of diagnoses worries more and more professionals.
- The different types of 'psy' professionalsPsychiatrist, psychologist, psychotherapist: finding your way before booking a consultation.
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