Cutting Edge Biology Ignored, Morals Masked as Diagnosis, Tortures, and the Right to Liberties

There was a concept before scientists had figured out the nature of things, that called the unknown ether or protoplasm. Some would argue that psychiatric diagnoses are no different. Some claim they are vague terms meant to obscure the reality of the unknowingness of professionals on the subject-matter. Yes more and more is known but there was a time when this was certainly true, and even now the cutting edge research and breakthroughs in biology are often ignored by the psychiatric community.

It makes sense then how someone could become apathetic and worsen when being dumped in an institution then being given a vague label with little scientific rational, and told they will likely never function again in the real world because of the vague label with such a over-exaggerated prognosis when all they wanted or needed was some support and validation for some of their troubles. In fact there has been clear evidence that those in institutions versus those in a supportive community tend to do incredibly worse. Researchers concluded in the 70s that the worsening of mental illness most often had to do with the horrors of the environments those individuals were subjected to.

The fact worsening of mental illness often has to do with the environment and not the prognosis alone is indication of the distress many go through or have gone through when being forcefully treated and in the process often abused. This distress is now considered to be a cause of mental illness and not a treatment when looked at objectively and as indicated through academic publications and such however psychiatry continues abusive tactics that can at times border on torturous and psychiatry ignores the clear indications of scientific research and first hand testimony.

This distress can be so extensive that it’s not surprising that many who are admitted for treatment can become passively submissive though what may surprise some is that passive submission is most of the time the intent of the so called treatment and somehow this is touted as improving prognosis when clearly it worsens it.

Society is not much better at encouraging people to be loving and kind to those in mental health crisis, and sometimes because of the pervasive attitudes can be outright crushing to persons facing crisis. We all want or at least it’s in most of our best interest to be accepted by “society” though for those with mental illness that can at times be the most difficult thing to come by. At this point in time psychiatry is more covert about it’s admitting people for more moral purposes doing so by labeling complaints as paranoia or attention seeking symptoms then drugging the person into a stupor and worsening the prognosis with abuses currently acceptable to society, however there was a time when persons could be committed blatantly for any kind of so called deviancy or any accusation of such a deviancy. These deviancies could include anything from family difficulties of nearly any kind, to dressing too sexy, to being flirtatious, choosing a career that didn’t fit gender roles, converting to another religion or denomination, and basically anything else the person accusing someone could come up with and could argue that the behavior was somehow not normal.

This is considered to be morals masked as medical diagnosis. This is problematic when one realizes that those who were admitted when this practice was at it’s worst were often administered electroshock, or a lobotomy or at times even more unusual tactics. These practices carry on to some extent in this country and in the world though sometimes in not so obvious ways. It’s interesting to note that when these tactics are utilized in socially unacceptable ways it’s deemed torture though when it has been used in ways that were deemed socially acceptable at the time such as in torturing mental patients it has been considered a remedy and not a torture though the same suffering would be experienced by those considered to have been tortured and those considered to have been treated.

Ultimately the so called mentally ill are intended to have a right to the same liberties as anyone else though through recent history this has so frequently been taken away from them. The liberties granted to the public have often been taken away from someone because an abusive family member decided they’d utilize their higher standing to admit that person to so called treatment for some abnormal behavior such as disobeying gender norms for example when this person could very well have been more normal than the person recommending their being admitted and that person would soon be far worse off and may even be permanently damaged. Things have changed to some degree though this scenario is still possible to those willing to put in a little more work than was necessary previously. Even today it would be nearly impossible for someone to escape the past of being treated in an institution which could follow them for the rest of their lives.

In the 70s things slowly began to change. Supportive living communities began to pop up for experimentation and some had great success though they lacked funding. These have become more readily available and have great success at assisting the mentally ill to return to a “normal” life. Though coercions can at times exist in such places as well, the effects on a person are much more subtle then abusive and torturous tactics that were once the only option. There has also begun to take place changes in inpatient care that have made strides in making those environments more supportive though much work continues to be needed to improve those environments.

On a last note research has shown now that those not treated by psychiatric drugs have a better prognosis than those that are after a certain number of years have gone by. This has been indicated for many years and has been utilized while requiring those in supportive communities not be drugged during their stay with ample success. I suppose the next step would be ending the practice of forced drugging and allowing those that wish to take advantage of the better prognosis after a few years to do so, which would ultimately allow for a better standard of living and a much brighter future for individuals experiencing mental illness.