Mental Illness Prophesies Society’s Spiritual Sickness

What psychiatrists call “mental illness” has become very common in today’s society. We have names for a wide variety of emotional distress; we have depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, and many others; the list has become endless. If anyone walks into a psychiatrist’s office and expresses some form of dissatisfaction with their circumstances or with the world around them, it is almost certain that they will walk out of that office with some kind of psychiatric diagnosis designated to them. Regardless of whether there is an element of exaggeration in the use of these labels, all of this signifies some kind of dissatisfaction in the general population, a kind of state where individuals have been broken by life. While “mental illnesses,” in some form or another, may have always existed, it is only recently that we have seen a dramatic rise in their prevalence, particularly in Europe, the United States, Australia and other western cultures. But why?

It has been argued that the cause of “mental illness” is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. Yet it is generally well known among the mental health community that there is no scientific evidence to support this hypothesis and that there is also no scientific test which can tell us what a healthy balance of brain chemicals consists of. This chemical imbalance “theory,” propagated by the psychiatric establishment, is generally considered to be a marketing gimmick by those able to see through the evils of the corporate-driven pharmaceutical industry.

Another explanation from psychiatry is that there is a genetic component. There’s little evidence of this as well, but even if true,  the focus of psychiatry on their biological theories suggests that the fault or misfortune of the situation lies in the biological make-up of the individual and that nature itself, who made the individual in this way, is to blame for the suffering experienced. This reasoning, to me at least, appears to be a common misconception among psychiatrists who choose to avoid looking at the wider picture as to why mental illness manifests itself within the individual and the wider society. This refusal to look at the wider picture, as I will argue from the point of view of someone who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, is only exacerbating the problem of mental illness in society.

When society has become sick, so to speak, there are good reasons for the presence of the mentally ill. Just like a human body that has developed a cancer, the presence of cells infected with the cancer is a signal that something is wrong. The disease manifests itself as a warning to the individual. Physical diseases, like cancer, are byproducts of the things our bodies have ingested (say, cigarette smoking, radiation, etc.). Some cancers may be seen as a product of our own making caused by our own choices and, in some cases, it may be due rather to the surrounding environment we have been exposed to. But whatever it is that has caused it, the onset of the disease is a warning to us as individuals that a change is needed if we want to survive. Something similar to this, I believe, is also the case when it comes to mental illnesses. Mental illness, however, is a different type of sickness and it appears to be communicating something slightly different to us, not just to the individual sufferers, but to society at large.

Many of those who suffer from the conditions of psychosis or other extreme states have described it as a spiritual sickness or spiritual emergency. What this appears to tell us is that there is, for whatever reason, a spiritual void that lies within many individuals in the modern day, particularly in western culture. However, if there is a spiritual void within many individuals living within a culture, then it would tend to suggest a spiritual void with the culture itself, since a society is composed of the many individuals who live within it. Therefore, if the number of cases of those who have been diagnosed as mentally ill is on the rise within western culture, then it would imply a deep-rooted sickness within the culture itself.

The famous 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche prophesied the rise of this phenomenon with the following words: “What I relate is the history of the next two centuries. I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of nihilism.”

Nihilism has been used to describe the loss or lack of meaning that has come to modern society, as conceptualised by many of the existentialist philosophers. It is a spiritual concept used to depict the lack of spiritual meaning that has become widespread within our society. Whenever someone walks into a psychiatrist’s office and communicates their dissatisfaction or lack of ability to cope in whatever form that takes, there is a tendency to attribute the cause to some fault in the biology of the individual’s brain, completely bypassing and ignoring the social sickness of nihilism these prominent philosophers described. After all, who could be dissatisfied living in a country such as the United States for instance, that has been described as the most free, prosperous and democratic country that has ever existed? God forbid that anyone should ever criticise American culture and way of life. Therefore, the problem must exist within the individual.

The failure, however, with American and western society at large, is the inability to look within at its own shortcomings and acknowledge these to itself. The rising prevalence of mental illness within the west is a warning to take a good hard look at itself, to look within the cultural self to see what needs changing. The mentally ill act as prophets, with some of them literally warning society at large that it is suffering from a lack of meaning, that there is a spiritual void and emptiness that political leaders in particular, are deliberately choosing to avoid, in order to avoid confronting and addressing their own shortcomings.

This is the shadow self of society that the pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung warned that we need to confront and properly integrate into ourselves if we are to experience wholeness. Jung described this phenomenon on an individual level; however, I would argue that the shadow self is a concept that is also true of a society at large. There is, however, a general arrogance present among western politicians in particular that makes them believe in the superiority of their own countries and way of life, and the right to impose that way of life on others even by force. This, I would argue, is a form of sickness, a failure to look within and arrogance in the extreme.

The mentally ill, in past societies, who have been able to overcome their condition, have often gained the insight needed to point out social sicknesses and to play the role of the wounded healer. Among past indigenous societies in particular, this role has been respected because its importance was recognised. Today, our so-called leaders in particular have become so blind that not only do they fail to recognise these potential wounded healers and the benefit they could bring by pointing out social problems, but they seem to be doing everything in their power to suppress the rights of such people, in keeping them zonked out on psychotropic drugs, and in giving them derogatory labels to undermine what they have to say.

As I have mentioned, it is political arrogance in the extreme due to a failure to look within. We must learn to work with nature rather than fight against it and nature is trying to tell us, through the prophetic words of those who are acutely sensitive to the surrounding environment, that society itself is sick, that spiritual meaning has been replaced with materialism, hedonism, and the pursuit of profit above the well-being of the environment and of the individual.

To acknowledge the shortcomings of society is not in the best interests of the political leaders, however, who place profit above all else, and who worship the capitalist god of the new world order. For them, there is no time to look within. There is only time to pass budgets, to bring inflation under control and to put money into making bombs.