Depression and Experts
This article is about depression from an unusual perspective. It
is about the powerlessness and hopelessness of modern
psychological science and research. The importance of an
holistic approach to mental and physical health will be
explained.
Do you know, what really startled me since I was a child?
It is actually very simple but profound at the same time. I
could see that there were problems in the adults' lifes. That
was one thing. The other was that they never seemed to really
get beyond them. My first assumption about grown ups was that
they are really smart people. I mean, they were grown up and I
was a kid. You admire them. Anytime they want they can turn on
the TV or take the car for a ride, just for fun. They can go to
sleep whenever they want or they can stay awake till the morning
dawn. They are gods...
My father used to comment on the radio news. From what I could
hear I realized that adult people are not what they seem to be.
They lacked knowledge, although they heavily pretended to have
some. Adults build huge hospitals, but the number of diseased
people is increasing. They do a lot of research, but things get
worse. They are holding big conferences, but there is no
solution to poverty, hunger and pollution. The destruction of
the planet continues, unhampered. They scientifically study the
human mind for years, but still they are fighting over minor
issues and killing each other. Depression is rampant.
The experts are wearing white coats of authority and they look
really impressive. But the picture is deceiving. They are as
helpless as the rest. They have been told that depression is
caused by some material disfunction in the body. They wouldn't
admit it, but this theory is the cause of their own latent or
acute depression.
There is one important saying: "Doctor, heal thyself". So,
obviously, an expert treating depression in a person should be
free of that mental condition himself. But is this really the
case? Are our experts examples in their own lives? Have they
achieved the peace of mind and the happiness that we are looking
for?
To be quite frank: Our mental health experts are haunted by
depression themselves.
Of course, their job is demanding and it is hard to stay
untouched from all these unfortunate human destinies. But that
is no excuse. For a health practitioner it is of prime necessity
to become a strong, positive and loving personality. It is not
enough to just "know" one's field of "expertise". Life operates
on rules that cannot be managed properly just by some
theoretical knowledge. A doctor abusing nicotine and alcohol is
as unbelievable as a psychologist suffering from a minority
complex, being arrogant and insensitive.
People tell me about their experience with mental and physical
health practitioners. They feel ignored, misunderstood and
treated like an innate object. That's how modern science looks
at it's objects: things, which have to be manipulated into
proper function. People feel that the experts lack self esteem
and hide behind academic degrees and honors. They rightly
perceive all this as symptoms of personal weakness. How to
develop real trust in such a person?
The formal training in any given area was much less in former
times. But that does not mean that we have become advanced.
Modern education has created highly trained specialists in their
respective fields, but being too much focused on a tiny segment
of reality they seem to have lost the whole big picture. At the
same time they have lost themselves.
A person is not just ears or heart or mind. A person is an
individual being. And what does that mean? A person cannot be
divided. A person is one. Treating a depressed person without
this consideration will only lead to frustration and more
depression.
Depression spreads like wildfire. People seem to get lost in the
rat race and the competition. Survival of the fittest. They
drown in the struggle for existence. The one and only thing a
depressed person needs is unalloyed love and compassion. No one
will learn this at university. The students will learn about
material processes in the body, in the brain. But they will
learn little or nothing about
the person possessing the body or brain. In this way they will
not learn anything about themselves, too. They will look at
depression with the arrogance and helplessness of a lost soul.
How should they be able to help?
A psychologist, a coach, a trainer, a priest, a doctor: they all
have to understand what life really is. They have to thoroughly
understand themselves first. They have to get rid of their own
depression and hopelessness deeply buried in themselves. They
actually have to become free and independent loving persons.
That is the real challenge: How to transform oneself into a
great personality. Theoretical knowledge alone is useless.