- Insanity is a legal form that arose as society was becoming more structured, ubiquitous, and prevalent, around the 16th century in Europe.
- The assumption is that anyone who does not behave in a socially accordant manner is insane, not of sound mind. The notion is that history would have it that individuals arise and live involved necessarily with the group.
- Psychology developed out of this with the idea of insanity a notion of social preservation.
- Mental Health is “the art of preserving the mind against all incidents and influences calculated to deteriorate its qualities.” [Isaac Ray,1893]
- Preserving the mind against deterioration.
The modern psychology is the domain that aims to combine these as a single aspect of a person, but it largely fails in this regard as it treats the social aspect as the most important. It suggests that the mind is a development of the social world and the weight of information is thus more on reliving of malady because malady is a deterioration of the social fabric.
The psychological approach is that people simply believe and that their capacity to believe is the main issue for mental health. However, this then leaves open the belief for the productions of science to be something that are not believed but indeed neutral lumps of disinterested matter, that people do not ‘believe’ these things into existence. Such disinterest is seen to create the person, that is, that the mind is nothing more than a physical manifestation of physical and social determination, i.e., physical body, physical social involvement , and the combination of those aspects in technology.
The psychological assumption is people are indeed determined by only these aspects. It thus methodologically ignores the person itself and the fact that these things have power due to belief and that this behaves within the person so they can have reality.
the primacy of mental health
In light of what is actually occurring, then, Mental Health Philosophy arises to retain the element of the mind as the basic feature of social cohesion, rather than the other way around. In short, it is the ability of the person to believe and to notice that they are believing. It is not a simple case of merely believing. Psychology and its kin would assume this simplicity, but then we have returned to the psychological problem which places society as determinate of the health of the mind.
In this sense, psychology is conventional and mechanical. Mental health is quantum and veritable. This is true because, in every case of mental health, we are helping the person. At least, this is true in so much as we talk about it in an ethical way. The theory is also in the service of the person. We do not usually have psychological theories for the purpose of supporting and helping the theory to continue (at least ethically speaking).
Mental health is distinct from all other domains of knowledge. This is because of how things actually behave. It is also due to the ethical way we speak about what we are doing, what we want, and how we actually go about the activity of understanding and treating mental issues.
what is happening?
All this does not mean that psychology is wrong or producing things that are bad or incorrect. It means that psychology is enacting a role in the health of the person. What this role is, likewise, does not mean good or bad, rather, it means that something can be happening which supports a problem when none otherwise is necessary. In a philosophical sense, a problem might be sufficient for understanding. However, as a problem, it is only necessary in its role of appearing as a problem. It is not necessary for what is happening or what the person wants from their experience or their life.
agency matters for mental health
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