Editor's Opinion

The effect of society on the mentally ill

Given the examples of the Soteria therapeutic centers in the USA and Europe, where patients are treated with little to no medicine, and examples in Africa, where there is no medicine and in both cases the patients get well, it is deduced that given a better societal and home environment the mentally ill will recover and lead fulfilling lives.

Instead of offering them a supportive environment for them to flourish, we medicate them, sometimes heavily, with medicine that comes with very serious, dehumanizing, and sometimes life-threatening side effects and incorporate them in an establishment, where a series of professionals come to their aid to apparently help them cope.

Now, the question is why try to fix these individuals to make them fit in society, instead of fixing a society that is seriously 'ill' and pretends to be sane?

Do we seriously expect these 'mentally ill' individuals to be healthy and functioning (at least according to modern societal standards), while they grow up and keep living in absolutely horrendous living conditions?

Could it all be an elaborate plot, so that the pharmaceutical companies and the mental health professionals would profit on the shoulders of the unfortunate mentally ill (who are wanted to be perpetually ill), even though apparently many of them genuinely want to help, all the whilst not attempting to fix the broken society that causes these poor souls to fall ill in the first place, which promotes the interests of the few rich and powerful that do not wish society to be fixed and wish to preserve the status quo?

I suppose the solution is easy and apparent. Fix society first, then fix the mentally ill! See if there are any mentally ill people around if society is 'sane' and well functioning!

S.P.