At the time of the creation of the NHS, the WHO definition of health (1948) was (and still is):
We believe this definition was based on an idealist view of health which is no longer valid for the 21st century, particularly for conditions that are long-term, as are most serious psychiatric ‘illnesses’.
Disease is a medical (physical) construct; illness is a mental (psychological) construct; madness is a social construct.
As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS, and the Government at last acknowledges the need for greater financial input into the service, not least, ‘mental health’, a caution is called for: we have not yet dealt with the stigma associated with mental illness. Hence we talk in ambiguous terms, referring to mental ‘health’ when what we are actually dealing with is mental ‘illnesses’. If stigma is not confronted at every level, whatever extra money comes in will be spent on social policing rather than on helping people to take responsibility for their condition and its impact not only on themselves but also on their community. The evidence for this claim lies in the increased numbers of Mental Health Act detentions, low-secure and medium-secure forensic beds and high psychiatric morbidity in prisons.
Madness, like energy (as Isaac Newton observed), is never lost but only transformed
www.academia.edu/4404365/THE_MADNESS_OF_PSYCHIATRY.
- Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
We believe this definition was based on an idealist view of health which is no longer valid for the 21st century, particularly for conditions that are long-term, as are most serious psychiatric ‘illnesses’.
Disease is a medical (physical) construct; illness is a mental (psychological) construct; madness is a social construct.
As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS, and the Government at last acknowledges the need for greater financial input into the service, not least, ‘mental health’, a caution is called for: we have not yet dealt with the stigma associated with mental illness. Hence we talk in ambiguous terms, referring to mental ‘health’ when what we are actually dealing with is mental ‘illnesses’. If stigma is not confronted at every level, whatever extra money comes in will be spent on social policing rather than on helping people to take responsibility for their condition and its impact not only on themselves but also on their community. The evidence for this claim lies in the increased numbers of Mental Health Act detentions, low-secure and medium-secure forensic beds and high psychiatric morbidity in prisons.
Madness, like energy (as Isaac Newton observed), is never lost but only transformed
www.academia.edu/4404365/THE_MADNESS_OF_PSYCHIATRY.