Mental
Health
“Mental
health is an on-going process of dedication to reality at all costs.”
M.
Scott Peck
When
Dr. M. Scott Peck, wrote his 1978 classic, The Road Less Traveled, it
was a ground-breaking look at the cross section between psychology,
spirituality, and mental health. The opening line is, “Life is difficult.”
He spoke about our finest hour being when we are confronted with problems that
must be solved, because we are faced and deeply engaged with reality. He
said, “Our finest moments are likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable,
unhappy, or unfulfilled.” It turned upside-down our notion that the goal of
life is being “happy ever after.” According to Peck, the cause of mental
illness—which he called emotional sickness—is avoidance of reality. Emotional
health, he declared, comes from facing reality at any cost.
Carl
Jung also said that humans learn most by wrestling with difficulties. He said,
“Be glad for your difficulties and challenges, for they hold blessings…Man
needs difficulties; they are necessary for health, personal growth,
individuation, and self-actualization.” He declared that “the foundation
of mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.”
Life is
difficult. And in that difficulty lies our hope. In solving our problems,
or at least attempting to solve them, we learn many lessons that at first are
not obvious. In wrestling with things we don’t understand, we find our own
answers, and we gain confidence in our ability to master problems. When we run
from reality, or deny reality, when we numb-out or busy-out, or whatever we may
do to keep from addressing the actual problem, we simply delay our own growth.
Peck wrote, “Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom, they create our
courage and our wisdom. It is only through the pain of confronting and
resolving problems that we learn.”
Thinking
deeply is unpopular today, it seems. Jung said, “Thinking is hard. That’s
why most people judge.” Most of us follow whatever is “trending” and leave
the deep thinking to someone else—those who are “sticks in the mud,” or “overthinkers.”
Instead of thinking deeply, we react to tweets and laugh at memes and joke
about almost everything. Ask Alex Jones how this strategy worked out for him. Now,
by confronting his reality, he will likely learn something new—that other
people’s pain is not a joke.
From
small problems to global problems, we humans have the capacity to find solutions. But it will require us to face the reality of
where we are, and who we are, and what responsibility we share in creating the
problem. We can do it, but first we must accept the same reality, agree to that reality, and come together to solve the problems that affect us all.
Scott
Peck defined a narcissist as someone who refuses to see their own badness and
cannot accept that they have any evil qualities or intentions. Who, instead,
project their badness onto others and blame them for the problems they
themselves have created. We cannot be both narcissistic and problem solving at
the same time. Responsibility must be accepted. Reality must be admitted. Our
emotional health—as individuals and as a nation—depends upon it.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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