What Do Psychiatrists Treat if Not the Soul (i.e., the Psyche)?

Fr. John (Russell Grigaitis)
By
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1958

You know the idiom in English, “It’s all Greek to me,” to express that something is difficult to understand? The Greek language is not only foreign to most English speakers, the Greek alphabet looks quite different from the Latin alphabet used in English and other European languages. Nonetheless, many English words come from Greek, especially technical words used in the sciences, such as mathematics and medicine. This idiom may come from the Latin phrase, “Graecum est; non legitur” (“it is Greek, so it cannot be read”), and it expresses the reality that an average person who is uneducated and untrained in a particular field may have difficulty reading about and understanding that field.

“A little knowledge” of Greek can be useful, but it also “is a dangerous thing,” as another common English expression suggests. This was demonstrated during a private conversation before the funeral of Leilani (O’Malley) Muir, who passed away four years ago on March 14, 2016. Leilani was the first person to successfully file a lawsuit against the Province of Alberta in Canada for being sterilized under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta, which led to several other class action lawsuits against the province for wrongful sterilization.

She had been institutionalized at the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives, later renamed the Michener Centre, just before her 11th birthday and was subsequently diagnosed as a “moron,” even though her IQ was normal. This false diagnosis allowed the Alberta Eugenics Board to approve her for sterilization, which was accomplished without her knowledge by telling her that she had her appendix removed. It was not until after she was married and found herself unable to conceive a child that a fertility tests led to the discovery that she had been intentionally sterilized and that the procedure was irreversible.

Just before Leilani’s funeral, a person who came to pay his respects said to the [Roman Catholic] priest Leilani had asked to preside at her funeral, who happened to be an acquaintance of his: “You should base your homily on Matthew 5:22.” This verse ends with: “… But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” The Greek word translated as “fool” in this verse is μωρέ [morĂŠ], the vocative singular masculine form of μωρός [morĂłs], from which we get the English word moron.

Although psychologists and psychiatrists used to apply the label moron to persons with an IQ of between 50 and 70, the Greek word from which it originates is not only used by Jesus Christ in the above verse, but also by Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:10: “We are fools for Christ’s sake…” Psychologists and psychiatrists also used to apply the label idiot to persons with an IQ below 30. This word comes from the Greek word ἰδιώτης [idiĂłtis], of which the plural form is used in Acts 4:13 to describe Saints Peter and John: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men (ἰδιῶται [idiĂłtai]), they marvelled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”

The use of these and a number of other words with Greek origins in a particular medical context could be described with another Greek word used by Saint Paul in Philippians 3:8, σκύβαλα [skĂşbala]. This world could accurately be translated into English as “B.S.,” only the Greek does not specifically reference bulls. In truth, the use of such terminology to confuse those who are not familiar with it brings to mind another famous saying in English: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”

While the Greek origins of the above three words may be little known by those who speak English, two other words are often cited by those critical of various aspects of modern medicine: pharmacy and psychiatrist.

Some have discovered or have been told that the Greek origins of the words pharmacy and pharmacist are used in the Bible in reference to magic potions, poison, sorcery, and sorcerers. This is correct and there are five occurrences of this Greek root in the New Testament, all of which confirm this usage. Thus, those accustom to formulating arguments based on biblical passages and examples of Greek usage in the New Testament may feel justified in asserting that this is the only context in which these words were originally used. Of course, a mere five examples of a particular usage does not negate the possibility of other usages.

If one were to search the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament in common use for more than a couple of centuries before the New Testament was written, this same Greek root is found a couple of times in reference to good and healing medicine. Additionally, the second Bishop of Antioch, Saint Ignatius, who was an immediate disciple of Saint John, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, described Holy Communion as the “Medicine of Immortality,” which could be translated, given the Greek that he used, the “Pharmaceutic of Immortality.” In surveying the wider usage of this Greek root, even in Christian contexts, it becomes obvious that it has both positive and negative connotations, much like the English word drug, so a sound argument against the pharmaceutical industry cannot be made using only the etymology of the word pharmacy.

The etymology of the word psychiatry, on the other hand, actually contradicts the modern medical field of so-called “psychiatry.” As mentioned in the first of these posts: “An Orthodox clergyman or monk is called to be a physician of souls, which in Greek is ιατρού των ψυχών (iatrou ton psychon). If one were to coin a single English word based on that Greek, it would be: psychiatrist.” This is not merely some ancient and obsolete Greek usage, but a usage that is still in use today, especially where Orthodox services are served in Greek. A specific example of this occurred just a couple of days after the above mentioned fourth anniversary of Leilani Muir’s passing away. This was the Monday in the Third Week of Great Lent and an English translation of the Troparion of the Prophecy sung during the Sixth Hour on this Monday is:

O Physician of our souls, who knowest the mind of man, in Thy compassion heal our infirmities, for we are weak and broken by sin.

Given the Greek origins of the word psychiatrist and the original Greek text of this troparion, which is still used today in many Orthodox parishes and monasteries, this troparion could be legitimately translated as:

O Our Psychiatrist, who knowest the mind of man, in Thy compassion heal our infirmities, for we are weak and broken by sin.

While etymology of the word psychiatrist suggests this would be a legitimate and acceptable translation of this troparion, the modern understanding of the word psychiatrist suggests otherwise. The words psychiatrist and psychiatry, along with their counterparts in other languages, have come to mean something that is not reflected in their Greek origins. This problem with the word psychiatry happens to be specifically mentioned in the Russian Wikipedia article Психиатрия (Psychiatry):

Термин «психиатрия» предложен в 1803 г. немецким врачом Иоганном Кристианом Рейлем (нем. Johann Reil; 1759—1813) в его знаменитой книге «Рапсодии» (Rhapsodien. 1803, 2 изд. 1818), где, по характеристике Ю. В. Каннабиха, «изложены основы „настоящей психиатрии“, то есть (понимая это слово буквально) — лечения душевных болезней». Этот термин В. А. Гиляровский называл анахронизмом, так как он

предполагает существование души или психики как чего-то независимого от тела, чего-то, что может заболевать и что можно лечить само по себе.

— Гиляровский В. А. Психиатрия. Руководство для врачей и студентов. — М.: МЕДГИЗ, 1954. С. 9.

«Это, — продолжает А. Е. Личко, — не соответствует нашим современным понятиям о психических заболеваниях», и были попытки заменить термин «психиатрия» другим.

Например, В. М. Бехтерев предлагал название «патологическая рефлексология», В. П. Осипов — «тропопатология» (от греч. tropos — образ действия, направление), А. И. Ющенко — «персонопатология». Эти названия не нашли последователей, и остался термин «психиатрия», утративший свой первоначальный смысл.

— Коркина М. В., Лакосина Н. Д., Личко А. Е. Психиатрия: Учебник. — М.: Медицина, 1995. С. 5–6.

Н. Н. Пуховский, утверждая, что применение «психиатрия», «психиатрические расстройства» невротизирует врача и дезориентирует пациента, и отмечая двойственность представлений о природе и сущности предмета психиатрии (под которым обычно подразумевают, с одной стороны, метафизическое «расстройство психики как символического органа персоны», с другой — «патологию головного мозга человека как органа разума»), предлагает вернуть в практику прежде употреблявшиеся термины «френиатрия» и «алиенистика» и выделять две самостоятельных области терапии ментальных расстройств: френиатрию (лечение патологии мозга как органа разума) и психотерапию (коррекцию расстройств самоопределения человека психологическими методами).

Of course, if you don’t read Russian, you may be tempted to say, “It’s all Greek to me,” and leave it at that. Fortunately, the advent of technologies like Google Translate, although far from perfect, have matured enough to be of great assistance in this regard. Google Translate renders the above Russian into English as:

The term “psychiatry” was proposed in 1803 by the German physician Johann Christian Reil (German: Johann Reil; 1759 — 1813) in his famous book “Rhapsodies” (Rhapsodien. 1803, 2nd ed. 1818), where, according to the characteristic of Yu. V. Kannabikh, “the principles of “real psychiatry” are stated, that is (literally understanding this word) — the treatment of mental illness.” This term V. A. Gilyarovsky called an anachronism, since it

assumes the existence of the soul or psyche as something independent of the body, something that can get sick, and that can be treated by itself.

— Gilyarovsky V. A. Psychiatry. A guide for doctors and students. – M.: MEDGIZ, 1954.P. 9.

“This,” continues A. E. Lichko, “does not correspond to our modern concepts of mental illness”, and there have been attempts to replace the term “psychiatry” with another.

For example, V. M. Bekhterev suggested the name “pathological reflexology”, V. P. Osipov — “tropopathology” (from the Greek. Tropos — the way of action, direction), A. I. Yushchenko — “personopathology”. These names did not find followers, and the term “psychiatry” remained, having lost its original meaning.

— Korkina M. V., Lakosina N. D., Lichko A. E. Psychiatry: a Textbook. — M.: Medicine, 1995. S. 5–6.

N. N. Pukhovsky, arguing that the use of “psychiatry”, “psychiatric disorders” neurotizes the doctor and disorientates the patient, and noting the duality of ideas about the nature and essence of the subject of psychiatry (which usually means, on the one hand, the metaphysical “mental disorder as a symbolic organ of a person”, and on the other hand, “pathology of the human brain as an organ of the mind”), proposes to return to practice the previously used terms “phreniatrics” and “alienism” and to distinguish two independent areas the treatment of mental disorders: phreniatrics (treatment of brain pathology as an organ of the mind) and psychotherapy (correction of human self-determination disorders by psychological methods).

As pointed out in the quote from the book Psychiatry: A Manual for Doctors and Students (Психиатрия. Руководство для врачей и студентов) by V. A. Gilyarovsky (В. А. Гиляро́вский), the word psychiatry “assumes the existence of the soul or psyche as something independent of the body, something that can get sick, and that can be treated by itself.” This is problematic, as A. Y. Lichko (А. Е. Личко) indicates, because it “does not correspond to our modern concepts of mental illness.” That is to say, the term psychiatry itself contradicts the biomedical model of mental illness, the very basis of the “psychiatric” theory dominating the American Psychiatric Association, even mandated since the 1980’s.

In addition to all the scientific questions that confound the so-called medical field of “psychiatry,” this one question most clearly demonstrates how fraudulent this field of medicine is: what do psychiatrists treat (i.e., what part of the human person do they treat)? If they cannot point to the specific part of the human person that they study and treat, they cannot coin a term to accurately describe their field of medicine. As it is, the term psychiatry points to the human psyche, which the biomedical model of mental illness completely negates, if not outright denying its existence.

V. M. Behterev (В. М. Бехтерев) suggested the term pathological reflexology, but this term is rather specific to his particular theories, which are covered in his book The Future of Psychiatry: Introduction to Pathological Reflexology. The term suggested by V. P. Osipov (В. П. Осипов), tropopathology, is also quite specific to his ideas concerning a science of behavioural disorders rather than a science of mental experiences and diseases. The term personopathology proposed by A. I. Yushchenko (А. И. Ющенко) is not much better than the term psychiatry as it begs the question: what part of the human person is the personality?

The argument attributed to N. N. Pukhovsky (Н. Н. Пуховский) basically asserts that the term psychiatry causes cognitive dissonance in both the doctor and the patient and that they should return to the terms phreniatrics and alienism.

While the term alienism is used in reference to persons within a legal jurisdiction where they do not have citizenship (i.e., they are estranged or separated from that particular society), the obsolete use of this term for what is now commonly referred to as “psychiatry” is in reference to persons who are estranged or separated from reason (or merely what a specific society believes is reason). Although this could be used to describe various states of extreme mental distress, it still does not identify the part of the person that needs medical assistance. Thus, it does not specifically describe a field of medicine, which is why it can also be used regarding foreign nationals.

The term phreniatrics may appear reasonable because the first part, phreni-, refers to the mind, just as it does in the word schizophrenia. However, the Greek word from which it is derived, φρήν [phren], is also the root of the word diaphragm. This is because the seat of the soul (psyche) was understood by the ancient Greeks as the centre or heart of a man or woman. Orthodox Christian theology makes used of this by teaching that spiritual or mental health is attained by returning the focus of one’s mind from the head (i.e., brain), through which the soul perceives sense knowledge, back down to the heart, through which the soul perceives noetic knowledge.

It is only through noetic knowledge that a man can know and communicate with the Divine, which leads to eternal life. As Saint Paul says in Romans 8:5, “For to be carnally minded (φρόνημα [phronima]) is death, but to be spiritually minded (φρόνημα [phronima]) is life and peace.” Applying Saint Paul’s words here specifically to the so-called medical field of “psychiatry,” to maintain that the mind is merely carnal or bodily (i.e., somatic), which is the fundamental basis of the biomedical model of mental illness, is death and the lack of peace, the very opposite of what is desired.

While the Orthodox see God as Our Psychiatrist, with monks and clergy acting as psychiatrists in cooperation with Our Psychiatrist, there is a place for somatic medicine in the healing of the soul. There are various physical illnesses, injuries, and substances that can affect the mind, temporarily and long term, in negative ways, e.g., high fevers, liver and kidney failure, ECT, lobotomy, other traumatic brain injuries, amphetamines and other “stimulants,” SSRIs and other so-called “antidepressants,” “antipsychotics,” “anxiolytics,” “mood stabilizers,” and “depressants” such as benzodiazepines and alcohol. Research into how these physical illnesses, injuries, and substances negatively affect or destroy the psychosomatic unity of the soul (psyche) and body (soma) and possible ways to heal and strengthen it would be of great value. After all, the more the seat of the soul is cut off from the physical senses, the less such physical stimulation (e.g., hearing, seeing, etc.) can influence the heart of a sick soul. Such a field of medicine could not legitimately call itself “psychiatry,” but a word such as psychosomology would accurately describe such a field of medicine.

Various therapies, though not all, used by psychologists can be very beneficial to a point, with the Orthodox believing that only Orthodoxy can heal a soul further, even to the point of becoming a saint, so a somatic physician who is also a psychologist could potentially offer something beneficial. More often than not, however, the treatments prescribed and administered by so-called “psychiatrists” that distinguish them from psychologists harm the psychosomatic unity and, therefore, the psyche. Since these treatments act against the psyche, they are antipsyche treatments (similar to medical terms like antibody and antitoxin, although antipsyche treatments are harmful rather than beneficial), which means that a physician who prescribes and administers such antipsyche treatments would be an “antipsychiatirst.” Of course, this word has already gained acceptance in opposition to this incorrectly named medical field and this opposition does not necessarily acknowledge a belief in a psyche (soul) that is distinct from the soma (body) either. However, since these antipsyche treatments harm the psyche only indirectly by directly harming the nervous system, the term “antineurologist” is also accurate and more acceptable, regardless of one’s beliefs concerning the human psyche.

All of the above is “Greek” to most people and any attempt to explain it to those who believe in the biomedical model of mental illness may simply be attributed to delusional thinking caused by a chemical imbalance. Nonetheless, it could prove useful in avoiding involvement with somatic doctors attempting to treat the psyche without believing in the psyche. Simply focus on one question: what do psychiatrists treat (i.e., what part of the human person do they treat)?

Would you allow a cardiologist to treat a heart (in Greek, καρδιά [kardiá]) condition if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person cardiologists treat?

Would you allow an oncologist to treat a tumour (in Greek, όγκος [ónkos]) if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person oncologists treat?

Would you allow an dermatologist to treat a skin (in Greek, δέρμα [dérma]) condition if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person dermatologists treat?

Would you allow a neurologist to treat nerve (in Greek, νεύρο [névro]) damage if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person neurologists treat?

Would you allow a gynecologist to treat a woman (in Greek, γυνή [gyní]) if he or she couldn’t explain what parts of the human person are specific to women?

Would you allow a pediatrician to treat a child (in Greek, παιδί [paidí]) if he or she couldn’t explain how a child is physically different from an adult?

Would you allow a nephrologist to treat kidney (in Greek, νεφρός [nefrós]) failure if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person nephrologists treat?

Would you allow an ophthalmologist to perform eye (in Greek, οφθαλμός [ophthalmós]) surgery if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person ophthalmologists treat?

Would you allow an psychiatrist to treat an illness of the soul (in Greek, ψυχή [psychí]) if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person psychiatrists treat? Or leaving out anything controversial: Would you allow an psychiatrist to treat an illness if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person psychiatrists treat?

Would you accept an answer to this last question (phrased either way) that is any less precise than acceptable answers to the other questions above?

***

Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Fr. John thank you for this article. Ironically the damage to my soul that drove me “mad” occurred through a rupture in my church.

    Spiritual abuse by adults when you are a sensitive child can be very traumatic. Something the secular mentalists claiming to help me never acknowledged. Especially since “mental health” chalks nearly everything up to biology nowadays.

    Some find closure by ditching religion altogether. I only found true healing for my psyche by realizing the lies and false doctrine crammed down my throat and the disgust I felt at hypocrites. I have forgiven them, but am no more anti-religion than I am anti-science simply because medical quackery exists.

    It is ironic how psychiatrists deny souls exist. They claim to fix “broken brains” but we already have the field of neurology. It’s interesting how psychiatrists and doctors talk about “non organic” causes of complaints. Many pro psychiatry groups like NAMI argue “What if we treated mental illnesses like physical illnesses?”

    Hmm. If the disease is NOT organic or physical (as their language implies) why do they only offer physical remedies for bodily organs?

    A lot of psych apologists like Jaffe argue that “It must be in the brain because nothing else exists.” Let’s ignore the a priori assumption of monism that the majority of the world’s people disagree with. Let’s assume all odd and erratic behaviors do originate in the brain. Some do–usually through brain trauma. (Others through liver failure, thyroid issues, etc.)

    That still does not justify random acts of brain damage through coercing someone into long term use of mind altering drugs or mutilating the brain through shocks and other “psycho” surgeries. It’s like arguing for treating restless leg syndrome by severing someone’s spinal cord. Annoying as this neurological problem is, most of us would rather be able to walk.

    • Please read Bruno Bettelheims book Freud and Mans Soul.
      He was from Vienna and says that Freud is /was mistranslated from German, and that he was trying to understand the soul.
      I saw psychiatry dump Freud in the 1950s, and turn to toxic drugs to suppress the symptoms of mental pain that were coming from the soul, or the unconscious.
      I had a 50 year career as a psychotherapist and am writing an essay now for Robert Whittaker, which I hope he’ll publish. No one else will.
      I found that psychotic patients became the most challenging and hardworking of my career, as they struggled to escape from their agony.
      It was wonderful to see them able to transform into happy people who loved to help others.
      One can understand why psychiatry wanted to think that emotional disorders were caused by brain defects; we’ve had such phenomenal success in understanding the physical world that our psychological world , our souls, have been neglected, leading to the pandemic of mental illnesses and addictions that we see today.
      But emotional disorders are only secondarily physical.
      They are primarily experiential and psychological.

  2. The answer’s easy, of course. The psychiatrist treats your bank account by transferring your money into his account, after reciting confusing spells to convince you he’s doing something constructive, and/or prescribing drugs to leave you delirious, unaware that you enriched him/her.

  4. To be a science, psychiatry needs very clear definitions of the object of its activity, call it mind, brain or soul. Also, very clear presentations of the physical-chemical way thoughts and emotions are formed (number and types of molecules involved in each cognitive process etc). All these are impossible to be done.

    This is why psychiatry will forever be the bastard son of psychology. Just a pseudoscience.

  5. Nice one Fr. John

    you write

    “While the term alienism is used in reference to persons within a legal jurisdiction where they do not have citizenship (i.e., they are estranged or separated from that particular society), the obsolete use of this term for what is now commonly referred to as “psychiatry” is in reference to persons who are estranged or separated from reason (or merely what a specific society believes is reason).”

    I would argue that the change of status of ‘citizen’ to ‘patient’ results in a person being removed from the legal jurisdiction in which they reside, and thus allows what are human rights abuses and torture, to be mislabeled medicine. Once the conditions of the Mental Health Act are considered to be met (which in my State merely involves a simple act of fraud with a corrupt practice called ‘verballing’) you are effectively “estranged or separated” from your society. It would simply not be possible to do the things that are being done to people here if they were considered human. I can give an example if you wish (and why does the 2nd letter of Saul of Tarsus to the Thessalonians come to mind when I think of these matters?).

    Your article also explains to me why many psychiatrists become agitated with anti psychiatrists. Imagine a plebian like me trying to claim their rightful throne.

    Great article and while much of it is still Greek to me, I shall return to this and attempt to obtain a deeper understanding. Perhaps one day the hijacked term can be returned to it’s rightful owner. Along with the term “unintended negative outcome” which after all should not be used when the intent was to negatively outcome someone to conceal an inconvenient truth. What’s the point of being above the law, if your not going to exercise that power?

    I also find myself wondering about the concept of anasognosia, the lack of insight, which is allowing these zealots to impose their will on others with impunity. Don’t agree with doctor, your anasognosic and I’ll have police hold you down while I do whatever I want.

      • Ahhh that explains the injecting of the ‘burning flesh’ for me. The heretics trapped in flaming tombs, by doctors (tin gods?) who do not wish to have their ‘treatments’ questioned. I guess being trapped in such a place would result in a change of mind about the hereafter? I know the person who explained it to me had blown half his face off with a pistol in his mouth as a result of requesting that his ‘treatment’ be stopped or changed being refused. Better the eternal sleep than be tormented by the god that is a psychiatrist. At least with the chemical kosh preferred in aged care facilities one is out for the count, no so with the burning flesh.

  6. I love linguists, my best real Bible study teacher ever was a linguist. Thanks, Fr. John for this interesting blog.

    “the word psychiatry ‘assumes the existence of the soul or psyche as something independent of the body, something that can get sick, and that can be treated by itself.’ This is problematic, as A. Y. Lichko (А. Е. Личко) indicates, because it ‘does not correspond to our modern concepts of mental illness.’ That is to say, the term psychiatry itself contradicts the biomedical model of mental illness, the very basis of the ‘psychiatric’ theory dominating the American Psychiatric Association, even mandated since the 1980’s.”

    Absolutely, the biological model of mental illness has been complete insanity and hypocrisy since the 1980’s. And the DSM “bible” believers are even Holy Spirit blasphemers, according to my medical records.

    “Orthodox Christian theology makes use of this by teaching that spiritual or mental health is attained by returning the focus of one’s mind from the head (i.e., brain), through which the soul perceives sense knowledge, back down to the heart, through which the soul perceives noetic knowledge.”

    Yes that, in addition to getting my loony psychiatrist to wean me from his soul murdering drugs, is what did help heal me. The many good and decent souls within the collective unconscious, who seemingly wanted to help me heal, did go from my head to my heart, once I’d healed from the drug withdrawal induced super sensitivity manic psychosis.

    “Applying Saint Paul’s words here specifically to the so-called medical field of ‘psychiatry,’ to maintain that the mind is merely carnal or bodily (i.e., somatic), which is the fundamental basis of the biomedical model of mental illness, is death and the lack of peace, the very opposite of what is desired.”

    Absolutely, the soul is separate from the body, and God can help us heal from the crimes committed against us and our families. But psychiatry’s treatments create the very symptoms of the illnesses they fraudulently purport to cure, which is the opposite of what people need to heal. The psych drugs create a definite “lack of peace.”

    https://www.alternet.org/2010/04/are_prozac_and_other_psychiatric_drugs_causing_the_astonishing_rise_of_mental_illness_in_america/
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxidrome

    “While the Orthodox see God as Our Psychiatrist, with monks and clergy acting as psychiatrists in cooperation with Our Psychiatrist, there is a place for somatic medicine in the healing of the soul.”

    I wish my childhood religion had not totally bought into the psychological and psychiatric industries’ systemic DSM “bible,” primarily child abuse covering up, system.

    https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/01/23/18820633.php?fbclid=IwAR2-cgZPcEvbz7yFqMuUwneIuaqGleGiOzackY4N2sPeVXolwmEga5iKxdo
    https://staging-madinamerica.kinsta.cloud/2016/04/heal-for-life/
    https://books.google.com/books?id=xI01AlxH1uAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

    But obviously they did, even according to appalled insiders of the ELCA synod offices, given I’d be one of the many “widows” mentioned in that 2007 book’s Preface. And the ELCA psychologists today are still trying to cover up the crimes of their loser psychological cohorts of the last decade.

    “the treatments prescribed and administered by so-called ‘psychiatrists’ that distinguish them from psychologists harm the psychosomatic unity and, therefore, the psyche.”

    I agree, but I will mention withdrawal from those horrendous drugs, can result in a psychosomatic unifying of ones’ subconscious dreams, and subconscious self, to ones’ waking hour self, as well. God’s a comedian, and utilizes man’s evils to also help bring about His will, at least hopefully, IMHO.

    “Since these treatments act against the psyche, they are antipsyche treatments (similar to medical terms like antibody and antitoxin, although antipsyche treatments are harmful rather than beneficial), which means that a physician who prescribes and administers such antipsyche treatments would be an “antipsychiatirst.”

    Yes, the psychiatrists today are doing and saying the opposite of what they actually should be doing, they are complete hypocrites.

    “Would you allow a psychiatrist to treat an illness of the soul (in Greek, ψυχή [psychĂ­]) if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person psychiatrists treat? Or leaving out anything controversial: Would you allow a psychiatrist to treat an illness if he or she couldn’t explain what part of the human person psychiatrists treat?”

    Today’s psychiatrists have delusions of grandeur they’re treating people’s brains, while they are in reality destroying people’s psyches with their neurotoxins. But as I mentioned, weaning people from their neurotoxins can be beneficial. And I’m quite certain God knows about all these psychiatric crimes, and will judge all fairly.

  7. Thank you Russell for this blog. You sure put the work into it.

    Indeed psychiatry can never explain “what” it is they treat, nor can they give an acceptable explanation as to “why”.
    There are a few cases such as the sterilization victims who psychiatry wants to forget, “ohh that was then”, “we are different now”.
    No, not at all, they still operate exactly in the same fashion, under the same false premises. The legal bars that they squeeze under to get away with their BS, just keep getting raised higher and higher.
    Our gatekeepers who dabble in political correctness simply say no to womb sterilization and allow the abusers to rape a child’s mind, basically castrate brains, or at least they attempt it.
    To allow these random abusers with their gurneys, tie downs, big boys with their needles and drugs, their trackers of victims, is a shame that will not survive, not if political correctness wins. But we hope that it dies due to common sense, to being exposed for the lies, the BS it is. Oppressors are not in fashion any longer, it is why they stopped the “cutting with knives”, it was too obvious. They think they can hide behind chemical warfare, but it is a matter of time before that becomes unfashionable.
    They have to let go of their foundations of belief, and that is a most difficult process. It exists in education. Education such as your article.

    A shrink attacks the very attributes he shares with another human. It is not “treatment”, it is outright attack.
    He is indeed anti-psychiatry.

    As far as “therapies” go, we are all “therapists” and indeed the client becomes the therapists healer. One seems not to find purpose without the other. It is liberating to realize just how beneficial someone is to that “help line”. The bugger is that the pay is not divided.

    • (Adams) notes that “Germans lagged behind their American colleagues in implementing the eugenic endorsements of doctors.” Adams writes that as of 1995, Mississippi’s eugenic sterilization law allowing for compulsory sterilization of “the socially inadequate” was still in force. Indeed, Germany’s sterilization law, passed in 1933, came 26 years after the state of Indiana’s.”

      Not sure if things have changed since 1995 Sam, but I know they were trying to pass a forced sterilisation of children without parental consent in our 2016 Mental Health Act. They got a few things through (eg ECT of teenagers) but when the rest of the world started chiming in regarding the blatant disregard of human rights (its what tends to happen when no one stands up, they become emboldened), they abandoned the clause and found other means. I assume the Euthanasia Act has it covered now.

      • Oppressors will do what they can get away with, as is allowed by the majority. At some point, the way we treat others comes under question.

        Fervent beliefs, combined with wanting authority. disastrous.
        Don’t worry about the “euthanasia”. That is reserved for people with disease that has no chance of getting better AND at their own choice, to be granted by the gods, IF they agree.

        It however is not for the “mentally ill”. NOPE, not allowed, which is weird because the shrinks claim it is an “illness”, and one that “declines” and one that causes “great suffering”.

        So you see, by choice, the “mentally ill” legally qualify. YET, they were the ONLY ones excluded.

        So they must believe that the “mentally ill” are of feeble mind and it must be that they also cannot tell when they are in pain, they must be imagining pain.
        They must also not be able to count for anything in the legal system.

        There were actually “professionals” that said, “even the mentally ill possess ability to reason”……Making that distinction as if it is even a questionable thing. Only a shrink or doctor can determine if you are “rational”
        and making a “rational” decision.
        The most irrational folks are in charge of deciding “rational”

        Everyone should have the right to not suffer if they don’t want to. But the power to decide who’s request is “rational”, who qualifies should not be in some authority.

        No worries, medical people are chicken about actual killing. They still believe in suffering being better for a person and they believe they are the deciders of your life.
        Corpses are no good for biz

    • They are anti psyche. They try to commit psychocide, but that’s not possible. So they strive to mutilate into a grotesque new form.

      Don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body but do nothing to the soul.

      They have damaged me physically but I make a conscious effort to forgive them every day. I believe all will be made right eventually.

      If any psychiatrist apologizes I will accept it and offer my forgiveness. Better to suffer evil than to do evil. They are to be pitied.

      They’ve mutilated their own souls far more than any of their victims.

      • One of my favorite quotes from the Injil

        “Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her prophets white wash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’ – when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice. I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, and bring down on their own heads all they have done declares the Sovereign Lord” (Ezekiel 22:27-31).

        How on earth did I find myself living in such a place? I heard a great sermon last week about asking God to join you in the fire, and not asking him to take you out of it. It really has changed my view of where i’m at. They try to ‘fuking destroy’ me, and He provides me with protection from everything they have thrown at me. They have literally got nothing other than their delusions of granduer, and an inability to see what is right before their eyes. Your right Rachel777, they should be pitied.

  8. They are anti psyche. They try to commit psychocide, but that’s not possible. So they strive to mutilate into a grotesque new form.

    Don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body but do nothing to the soul.

    They have damaged me physically but I make a conscious effort to forgive them every day. I believe all will be made right eventually.

    If any psychiatrist apologizes I will accept it and offer my forgiveness. Better to suffer evil than to do evil. They are to be pitied.

    They’ve mutilated their own souls far more than any of their victims.

    • Yes, Rachel, physicians of the soma who are under the delusion of being physicians of the psyche (i.e., psychiatrists) are ultimately greater victims of this delusion than those whom they inflict physical and mental harm. The most harm somatic doctors under the delusion of being psychiatrists can inflict upon their patients is that they loose their patience to the point of being unable to forgive the harm done to them by delusional doctors. Yet it is the soul of the delusional doctor that suffers the greater injury by his mistreatment of patients. “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”

      BTW, the etymology of the words “patient” and “patience” allows a great deal of meaningful word play in this regard: https://www.etymonline.com/word/patient

          • Correct Fr.

            I merely bloodied the wet suit before they went swimming, it was Gods will that the shark attacked. I suppose if our Police could find their copy of the Criminal Code they may charge said shark with an assault but ….. they tell me that I can be drugged without my knowledge because they don’t know if that is a crime (only men under the influence of evil? Or the influence of stupefying / intoxicating drugs that were administered without knowledge? Or with knowledge for that matter).

            Much of it seems related to the color of ones skin round these parts. In fact one might be surprised what can be concealed by psychiatrists who can do some vile acts to people with the legal status of “patient” should they choose. In fact the “inherent in or incidental to lawful sanction” clause of the Convention against the use of Torture means that what can not be done to citizens, can certainly be done to “patients” and called ‘medicine’.

            I know one young man who put a gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger three times because his doctor would not stop injecting him with the ‘burning flesh’. He did reconsider his ‘treatment’ once half this young mans face was missing though, credit where credit is due. Whilst we may never know what was in this doctors heart, i’m sure there is one who does.

            I can of course show you how such negligence is used as a means to an end in our Emergency Depts if your interested.

            I have met such evil men face to face Fr. And I feel sure you would not be the least bit surprised as to the positions they hold and the power they wield over the “little ones”.

            At what point is there a duty to act?

            8? 16? They stopped counting for Harold Shipman at 200 plus. And consider he is the ONLY doctor to ever be charged with the murder of “patients”. Why would this be? Because it never happens? Or is it considered simply ‘wastage’? I know I certainly was. An inconvenient truth.

  9. Did you know that Bruno Bettelheim wrote a book saying that Freud has been mistranslated into English, and that he was really attempting to understand the soul.
    When I had my first psychotic psychoanalytic patient I was completely blocked by his thought disorder. Fortunately my supervisor was Dr Donald Winnicott, who suggested I stop talking (nonsense), and listen. I was eventually able to hear his tortured true self, his soul, and he was able to build a real life based on his emotions and having a good parental figure.
    I’ve since learned that the true self, the soul, lives in our right brains, and that personality transformation is possible even with “hopelessly damaged psychotic “ patients.
    Our society values our left brain functions so greatly that our souls get neglected, and we have a pandemic of mental illnesses and addictions.

  10. This is as good a place as any to wish Dragonslayer a Happy Easter (pass this along please Rachel).

    For newcomers I’ll offer this timeless quote from DS:

    Asking what “mental illness” really is is like asking what the Easter Bunny “really” is. 🙂

    • The concept of SMI is far harder to grasp than the concept of Santa Claus.

      Is it violent behaviors? Stupidity? It depends.
      If they want to pretend to be nice they treat you like you’re MMR. If they want to alarm your family or turn the public against those like you, they say “mental illness” is all about acting like Norman Bates or Mike Meyers or one of those other Hollywood pictures inspired by shrinks.

      You find this in other forms of discrimination.
      Let me quote an MRA/incel: All women are independent, needy, career obsessed, gold digging, picky whores.

      Note the contradictory aspects to the image he created? That’s how shrinks describe the “mentally ill.”
      “Dangerous, helpless, childish, cunning, irrational, diabolically clever, illogical, manipulative, detached, needy, unemotional, hysterical, arrogant would-be mass shooters. With low self esteem.”

      • Those descriptors sound to belong to a shrink. In fact, I doubt one could “know” these things if not self aware to a point…and are those attributes “sinful”, or “illegal”? Does shooting people full of chemicals count as “mass shooter”?
        There is no needier human than a shrink. He refuses to deal with that crap.

    • The Orthodox do believe they have some knowledge of what “mental illness” really is, at least as much as finite creatures can come to know such mysteries. Of course, they also believe in Santa Claus, though they more often refer to him without using the corrupted form coming from the Dutch language: Our father among the saints Nicholas of Myra, Wonder-worker. His feastday is December 6th and he attended the First Ecumenical Council in 325 that, among other things, standardized the calculation for the date for Pascha (i.e., Easter), which is next Sunday with yesterday haven been Palm Sunday 😉

  11. Hi father.

    I’ve found your article to be mostly verbiage along, with the narrative of this site. I’m a schizophrenic that was on high dose of haloperidol. I found it debilitating, I couldn’t find the time to study or work because I slept 12 hours a day. I tried everything to improve my outcome to come off the meds: praying, psychotherapy and open dialogue. Nothing worked. In fact, it almost ruined my life. As I was tapering from the medication under the supervision of open dialogue I became psychotic, which tragically ended up with me stabbing a friend with a large kitchen knife nine times. None of this would have happened if I used critical analysis and searched for the actual FACTS the open dialogue and various other pseudo theories perpetuated on this site are substantiated with evidence.

    Anyway, when I get was in jail for the crime I committed, I read the literature that is allegedly bullshit according to the ethos of site and found it far more convincing than anything I read on this site. I don’t have time to expand on my thoughts because I’m caught for time, but I will say that a priest did come to visit me when I was in solitary confinement, which I found was nice of him, but it didn’t help my psychosis. Now I’m on good medication and I can work and I have a normal life..

  12. Dear Fr. John,
    Thank you so much for this thoughtful explanation of this subject. For me, the connection between the soul, the body and “mental illness” is a deeply held truth and experience, and I’m grateful for your valuable work. I am in the process of creating a workbook/guidebook for people who are looking to deepen their experience of themselves as souls, and would welcome any advice regarding other resources that could deepen my own understanding of the connection between the soul and mental health. Please feel free to send suggestions to Diana@doorsoflight.org. Thank you! Diana

    • Thank you, Diana. If you or anyone else is interested in exploring this topic further via reading material, below are a few suggestions
      . Of course, the Orthodox Faith is not a learned faith and is not acquired via academic and intellectual exercise. It is a lived experience that allows “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” to “guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

      As mentioned in a comment above, ‘God’s Path to Sanity’ by Dee Pennock is an excellent starting point as it summarizes and consolidates millennia of teachings from Orthodox physicians of souls. This book is not an academic work, though it could be used as such if one puts the effort into finding all of the cited the sources, which are not documented all that well.

      Another book giving a well rounded and accessible introduction to Orthodoxy that often touches specifically upon the topic of mental health, is ‘Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios.’ This is written for the average person and is not an academic work. It is not actually written by Saint Porphyrios, who didn’t even have a grade two education, but by a group of nuns who wrote down the things he said to them and then after he passed away, compiled it into a book as if it was written by him.

      The five volume set ‘Spiritual Counsels’ by Saint Paisios the Athonite also contains a great deal on this subject and is still quite accessible to the average person.

      The three volume ‘The Psychological Basis of Mental Prayer in the Heart’ by Fr. Theophanes (Constantine) is quite academic and may be confusing for those unfamiliar with Orthodoxy. Fr. Theophanes was a friend of both Saint Porphyrios and Saint Paisios during his over 30 years on Mount Athos. This book was only available in print via the author personally having a copy printed for those who requested it and he did not find a publisher before he passed away. Nonetheless, it remains freely available online until his literary estate is settled and a publisher is found:
      http://timiosprodromos4.blogspot.com/

      His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and St. Vlassios has written a great deal on this subject, most famously in his book ‘Orthodox Psychotherapy.’

      Dr. Jean-Claude Larchet has written on this subject. Among other works, his three volume ‘Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses’ is noteworthy.

      A number of other Orthodox authors have written on this subject within the last half of a century. They haven’t written about anything that wasn’t known many centuries earlier, but have taken what was known during Apostolic times and presented it in the modern context. The less academic works (such as the first ones listed above) are much more useful than the more academic works, though the more academic works are useful for those getting deeper into this subject.

  13. Wow, what a piece of work!
    I often mention this “problem” with psychiatry. There was perhaps a short time (the early 1800s?) when psychiatrists believed in souls. Now they claim to not know what they are, or even if they exist.
    And they spit at and shout down the only subject to come up with a workable answer to this question every chance they get! I wonder what their real goal is, seeing that, if they wanted to be “doctors of the soul” they certainly could be such, and make an honest living of it, too.

    • They keep talking about “non organic causes” too. Not just real doctors but shrinks.

      A shrink will seldom admit to a patient suffering something medically proven like Lyme’s Disease or Crohns. But they do acknowledge these diseases exist and let other doctors treat them. In turn the doctors refer the “non organic causes” to them.

      Hmm. “Non organic” causes. And yet they kept arguiing at NAMI how “mental illness is a real brain disease” and “an illness like any other” and “your meds are just like insulin for diabetes” and “science has proven that ‘mental illness’ is caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain.”

      All those arguments sound like organic causes are to blame. Is the human brain not a real organ?

      Or psychiatry just has a bunch of drugs and shocks to sell and since these remedies only operate organically they claim the brain is to blame even as they call the disorders they treat “brain illnesses.”

      Needless to say this is a secret embarrassment to the psychiatric community.

      Google “Why We Still Use ‘Organic Causes’ + psychiatry online” for an insider look at what psychiatry doesn’t broadcast to the public. They’re pretty mad at real doctors for making a distinction in the ICD-10, feigning concern about how this will contribute to “stigma.”

      The only “stigma” shrinks worry about is the stigma against themselves as the poor little Cinderella they see themselves to be. They are the real victims and nobody gives them the respect they feel they are due.

      Their “consumers” are so beneath consideration (subhuman monsters as they believe them to be) that they don’t even consider, let alone care, that discrimination ruins their lives.

      No concern about those they harm. It’s all about them. And if they hurt their hands beating someone else they burst into tears about their own injury.

  14. Very rich and interesting article with lots of food for thought, thank you. My overall thought at this point is that we need our emotions to know our soul, the roadmap to healing. Otherwise, how would we know whether or not we’re at peace?

  15. Salaam Fr. John.

    I’m not sure if you receive emails from your articles. However, I have been pondering some old stories and seek wisdom from a ‘man of understanding’.

    The stories relate to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, and the question asked of him “Why do you kick against the pricks?”. And the second story is that of Balaams donkey.

    The first question I was asked after I was tortured and kidnapped by my State authorities. They investigated my matter and found that I was correct, I had been kidnapped and tortured, and for my complaining I was to be subjected to slander and fraud and ‘unintentionally negatively outcomed’ in an Emergency Dept. Why did I kick against the pricks? I should have known when they openly stated that they would fuking destroy me that they meant it.

    However the Chief Psychiatrist Dr Balaam eventually realised that they had been beating the wrong Ass. It wasn’t the pricks I was kicking against, but trying to warn them of an imminent danger. I’m sure they were embarrassed about not noticing that there were psychiatric death squads operating in our Emergency Depts that they were unaware of. So, here I sit licking my wounds from the beatings ten years later, and as God would have it I find myself trying to take the advice offered in Acts 5: 38 – 40.

    “So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.” They took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them.” Acts 5:38-40

    I wonder though do they have justification for putting this donkey out of it’s misery as a result of the beating they handed out wrongly? I will be staying away from these men, as it has been made clear to me by police that if they wish to enable these death squads to operate with impunity, that is what they will do. Tough job being in power. Perhaps one day they will listen to the words of our Prime Minister and begin to value a rule of law. Police might even locate their copy of the Criminal Code rather than making referrals of inconvenient truths to mental health services for ‘treatment’.

    The outcome is fairly obvious. Despite me having the proof of what i’m saying it needs to be my illness that speaks, and the fraudulent narrative presented by the authorities to my ‘legal representatives’ (not that they were ever that, all they did was assist with the concealment of torture by the State) is the only truth that will be accepted.

    And God sends upon them a Great Delusion huh?

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