What We are Getting Wrong About Mental Illness: Diagnostic Manuals are BROKEN

Diagnostic manuals are broken. We need to a whole new conception of mental illness.

Richard Dawkins would have called his book “The Selfish Brain” had he read the second edition (2014) of Sue Gerhardt’s masterpiece of popular science, “Why Love Matters”. Our brains are a work in progress well into the 25th year of life. They remain neuroplastic for the rest of our mortal coil.

Babies are born prematurely, with their brains half-formed. It is the role of the maternal figure (typically, the mother) to facilitate the maturation of this magnificent organ via tactile stimuli, sensa, speech, and above all, good enough mothering.

Putting the finishing touches to our brains is our main and only undertaking in life well into our twenties. In effect, we grant access to other brains so as to form cerebral networks with family, friends, peers, teachers, and role models. Our brains apart, our bodies are incidental until we are ready and fit to procreate.

Adulthood involves the unwinding of these earlier promiscuously open networks. The brain is firewalled and fortified by reality reframing and filtering defense mechanisms and narratives. Emotions and cognitions mediate our experiences. We become increasingly more solipsistic as we age, culminating in death, the ultimate in schizoid states.

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