All in your mind?
Behavior that used to be considered religious is now considered sick--a fact that points out how increasing rates of mental illness may have more to do with how we think about human behaviors than with health."In some ways this is the story of the past century, the medicalization of many behaviors that once were seen in an entirely religious context," says Nancy Tomes, a professor of medical history at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, in the Sunday edition of The New York Times.
It's a little ironic, isn't it, in a time when faith communities must assume a greater share of mental-health services as state and federal governments reduce budgets to help the "mentally ill," focusing on a small number of acutely unwell rather than on the vast majority of long-term problems.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, June 14, 2005