The Meaning and Demeaning of Mental Health

The following is an extract from an interview with Mallory Gothelf, mental health advocate and creator of ‘The Infinite Project‘. “It’s difficult not…

The Meaning and Demeaning of Mental Health

———- Like.

But I like to put it in terms more of what I choose to apply to myself. The meaning remains the same. I got enough reasons to beat myself up; it’s not that these reasons go away or I change the meaning that they have in my life. Kind of on the contrary, I just don’t allow them to make authoritarian enforcement upon what I am, but allow them to be whatever they are or were.

Of course, though, what meaning is had is ultimately determined by the person. Somehow, though, sometimes we are doing a disservice ideologically when we reduce a persons experience to meaning making. Sometimes it can be a change in ones view upon the situation. But most people just go by the ideological equation for identity, which in our moment, is based on meaning.