We all fear madness. Rightly so, for who would willingly live in the cold, grey world of the depressed, the chaotic world of the schizophrenic or the fearful world of the anxious?
The mentally ill suffer the double curse of losing both their inner peace and their place in society. They may be held and treated against their will, be refused insurance, lose their jobs, or have their children removed from them. Fortunately, many will recover their minds, but recovering their confidence and status is more difficult.
The families of those who are mentally ill also suffer double hardship. Besides learning to cope with someone who has become almost a stranger to them, they also have to deal with the fear and rejection of other people. Not surprisingly, they have a greater than usual risk of developing a mental illness themselves.
We usually assume that other people's behaviour is reasonably predictable, that they will respond to words and circumstances in much the same way that we would. When we meet someone whose behaviour is unpredictable, we are shaken and unsure what to do. We want to walk away. As a result, the mentally ill are often very lonely, frightened people.
How should Christians respond to mental illness?
Fear and rejection shouldn't be the Christian response to any human being. But how should we respond when an obviously troubled person visits our church or business? How should we deal with a family member whose behaviour suggests that they are mentally ill? And what should we do if we find our own mind slipping from our control?
How we respond will depend very much on how we understand mental illness. It will also depend on whether we see psychiatry as a channel for God's gifts or an enemy at the gate.
Some views of mental illness
Many are sceptical about the very words "mental illness". Thomas Szasz, a secular American psychiatrist, argues that we label people "mentally ill" and lock them up "for their own good" in order to control behaviour of which we don't approve. By doing this, we deny that people have free will and are responsible for their own behaviour and its consequences.
Szasz is happy to help those who seek help voluntarily. Everyone else, he believes, should be left in peace unless their behaviour threatens other people, in which case the law, not psychiatrists, should step in. So he would not attempt to restrain someone who was suicidal, or give a person with schizophrenia injections against their will.
Whilst Szasz views are extreme, most people would agree that sometimes the term "mental illness" is misused or abused. In the former Soviet Union, dissidents were often sent to psychiatric hospitals for prolonged "treatment" of their "mental illness".
King David feigned insanity to get himself out of a sticky situation, (see 1 Samuel 21 v10 - 15). Today those who, in criminal trials, claim that they are unfit to plead due to insanity are often treated with suspicion (although in most cases, there is little benefit in doing this, since incarceration in a mental hospital may be prolonged indefinitely, whilst a prison sentence is fixed.)
Jay Adams is a Christian counsellor who also has misgivings about much of what is labelled "mental illness". He argues that psychological symptoms are the result of sin and disobedience. The only way to overcome this is to confront people with what the bible says and urge them to repent.
It is true that sin disturbs the mind. Unconfessed sin produces guilt, which in turn can produce anxiety, depression, even compulsions and obsessions. Drugs and alcohol, when abused, lead to many unpleasant mental as well as physical side effects. Some do feign mental illness for their own ends. There are times when confrontation is necessary and helpful.
However, I believe this approach to mental illness needs to be used with discernment. For instance, many women suffer from depression after the birth of a child. Are new mothers as a group particularly sinful? Surely psychological suffering is sometimes due to the general effect of sin in the world rather than personal sin.
Adams is not alone amongst Christians in mistrusting psychological theories and therapies. Numerous writers have pointed out that Freud, Jung and many other "fathers of psychology" were atheists or agnostics, and that their theories were conjecture, not science as some claim.
They are uneasy about the way in which psychologists and psychiatrists deal with terms which have traditionally been the province of religion - guilt, for instance, - and rightly point out that non-Christian concepts such as self-esteem and self-fulfilment have crept into the church from secular psychology. Some go as far as describing psychology as a religion in disguise.
Giving too much power to psychologists, some argue, has led to most lay people, and even many pastors, feeling unable to help those suffering from emotional or mental problems because they are untrained.
These warnings need to be taken seriously. But is it true, as some contend, that the bible contains all the knowledge we need to deal with every psychological and emotional disorder? One of the difficulties in discussing mental disorders is that the words can be used to describe everything from mild anxiety to profound psychosis.
God's word has a lot to say to the person who is struggling with emotional problems, but it seems to me that a person whose mind is seriously disturbed may sometimes need other help before they can hear the gospel.
What about demonic activity as a cause of mental disorder?. What appears to be insanity is sometimes healed miraculously by prayer and exorcism. Legion, the man Jesus healed, is one well known example.
John White, a Christian psychiatrist, has witnessed and written about several healings of this sort. His conclusion is that such cases are quite rare. He points out that hallucinations are made up of the images and sounds stored in a person's memory. Seeing or hearing demons does not necessarily imply demonic activity.
At the other extreme are those who contend that all mental illness is due to abnormalities in the functioning of the brain. In time science will provide an explanation and a cure for every symptom.
Schizophrenia and depression are certainly often associated with chemical and physiological changes in the brain. The dramatic improvement some people experience when given medication or electroconvulsive therapy also suggests that there is a biological factor in their illness.
But now we come back to Thomas Szasz' question. What about free will? If everything I think and do is a result of the functioning (or malfunctioning) of my brain, can I be held responsible?
My own understanding is that even the well person's thoughts and behaviour can be influenced by physical factors such as tiredness, hormones and alcohol. The mentally disturbed person is still capable of making decisions, even if those decisions appear irrational because they are based on faulty information or reasoning as a result of their illness. People have argued about free will for centuries, and science offers no solution.
Another approach
Our God is a God of healing, and he is not limited in how he heals. Sometimes he provides us with the tools to use, in the form of knowledge, understanding and medical therapies. At other times he heals more directly, or through spiritual gifts.
So when we are faced with mental illness, either ourselves or in other people, our first task is to pray, to ask for discernment and to listen. It may be that we are called to pray further, to deal with spiritual problems or even to cast out demons. We may be able to do nothing but listen and offer support. At other times we may need to seek medical help or perhaps even ask the police to assist - not out of fear but out of concern. Learning more about mental illness will help us to be less fearful and more compassionate towards people who are mentally disturbed.
By Dr Stella Budrikis
© Copyright 1998