The following is an excerpt from the The American Journal of Psychiatry released in 1842.
“Mr. ___, aged 48, had uniformly enjoyed good health until the summer of 1842, when he complained some of not feeling well, was weak and dyspeptic, and in November had what was supposed to be a slight paralytic attack. For this and severe pain of the head he was bled seven or eight times, took cathartic medicines and was blistered largely. He remained dull and disinclined to exercise for five or six weeks, when he became suddenly deranged…”(http://cantonasylumforinsaneindians.com/history_blog/tag/case-studies-of-insanity)
The subject of insanity is intriguing to say the least. I mean what could cause a completely normal man to abandon all reason and become "deranged?" What is at the root of what claims so many men and women these days as casualties of the mind? Is it all in the mind? Are there spiritual implications to what makes someone "bonkers?" Well, I do of course have my own opinion regarding the matter, but I am curious as to what you(as the reader)thinks. So what I will do in the next few paragraphs is to try to "lay out" the arguments and then leave it up to you.
While it is perhaps easy to identify certain mental illness (i.e. schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder etc), it is more difficult to identify the cause of these disorders. In fact it seems that almost every problem we face these days stems from some form of disorder. Nevertheless, I am more interested in the acute cases of insanity. So lets dive in...
According to Web MD there are many factors that may cause mental illness some of which could be physical. This list includes: genetics, infections, brain defects or injury, prenatal damage, substance abuse, and a category of "other factors" which include toxins. Now I believe that certain elements such as infection could play a role in brain chemistry. But isn't it it interesting that the first cause listed(other than biological factors) is genetics? So can insanity be passed down to our kids? Rather frightening thought.
There was a man in the mid 1800s named Richard Patterson who had this to say on the subject:
"mental derangement always depends upon either functional or organic diseases of the brain, and without such disease we see no derangement of the mind. The causes of this cerebral disease may be either physical or moral."(http://www.in.gov/icpr/2701.htm)
Interesting! So it is more than the biological...morality rears its ugly head. He goes on to argue that social and cultural influences play a part in this epidemic.
Then there is the argument for the spiritual. A question was asked on gracethrufaith.com on how to know the difference between mental illness and demonic oppression. While the answer to this question goes on to say that it's arguable that some of these disorders are due to a lack of vitamin intake, the first sentence is this:
"There are people with legitimate mental disorders and no doubt some of those are of demonic origin."(http://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/mental-illness-or-demonic-oppression/)
It seems that a popular view in churches today is that mental illness might be more "spiritual" in origin than physical.
As I have said, I do have an opinion about this subject...be it uneducated or not...however, I would love to hear your feedback especially because I give my input all too often(as this is MY blog).
Your thoughts..
