tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post7326981948678870501..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: Is Mental Illness More Common than it Used to Be?Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-78546257014115638462016-04-03T23:33:48.526-04:002016-04-03T23:33:48.526-04:00Mental illness isn't more common, it's sim...Mental illness isn't more common, it's simply more visible.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-67529881574747328672016-04-03T13:27:30.028-04:002016-04-03T13:27:30.028-04:00Maybe it's my Southeast Texas background, grow...Maybe it's my Southeast Texas background, growing up among newly prosperous families with strong rural roots, but I just have trouble with a rosy view of rural life as a haven of tolerance. Yes, you could have a place, but you had to know what it was and you had to keep to it. No, they wouldn't diagnose you or put you on medication. But you better not make any claims to adult rights or a public voice, or speak any resentment. David Hackett Fischer's portrayal of the isolated social failure in Appalachian society is a good example, a powerful statement of what I take to be a frequent fate.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-77866715619003675752016-04-03T12:44:51.275-04:002016-04-03T12:44:51.275-04:00From personal experience: In the South it was desc...From personal experience: In the South it was described as 'quirky' or odd, or other adjectives. Unless it was disruptive to the community, personal oddities were tolerated, excused, or ignored. When a child was born obviously disabled the OB or midwife might commit mercy killing. Accidents of childhood occurred to disabled children, which a normal child might have evaded. <br />My husband's first wife's family has bi-polar, borderline personality, schizophrenia and other affective mental illnesses in all generations. Her children and all of the grandchildren have it to some extent, some mild, some disabling. In the recent past, and I assume, in the further past, these aberrant behaviors were interpreted more benignly.<br />I agree with you; the definitions of aberrant behaviors have changed. We more broadly apply the term 'mental illness'.Susihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08491909280925749677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-66253083835524029152016-04-03T11:42:16.665-04:002016-04-03T11:42:16.665-04:00I would say again, though, that village life also ...I would say again, though, that village life also helped the mentally ill get by because it promoted self-repression and conformity. That is, the place of mental illness in village life isn't just about support networks and other "healthy" things that we no longer have. Modern life frees people from the obligation to hide their mental illness.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-84830552639808254192016-04-03T11:34:29.258-04:002016-04-03T11:34:29.258-04:00David, I agree that the nature of village life hel...David, I agree that the nature of village life helped the mentally ill get by: physical work in familiar settings with the same people, unchanging from year to year, with strong religious and magical support for dealing with anxieties. (Imagine OCD in 200 BCE: people who refused to leave the house without putting all seven of their protective amulets in exactly the right order and reciting prayers to all seven of their favorite gods.) I also agree that many of the mentally ill probably died young of drink, wounds from violence, or other side effects. In fact I have the general impression that the high death rates had a winnowing effect; on average it was the physically or mentally weak who died young, leaving the strong to forge on. Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-496736903066720442016-04-03T09:17:17.796-04:002016-04-03T09:17:17.796-04:00It seems obvious to me that decreasing shame and r...It seems obvious to me that decreasing shame and repression must be a factor; not necessarily the only factor, but an important one. This must in particular affect issues like depression and anxiety, where one can get more or less get by in life keeping one's problems more or less to oneself. Perhaps it is also worth pointing out that alcoholism rates have declined. And how many mentally ill persons simply died younger--perhaps much younger--in former societies?<br /><br />The changing nature of work may also be a factor. Depression and anxiety may--I stress I'm only suggesting a possibility--but easier to hide (including from oneself) when work is largely physical.<br /><br />A further suggestion: mental illness may have seemed less frequent in the early modern world, but vagabondage was seen as a huge social problem. How much did mental illness pay a role in that? Which residents of a village would fail first in the village economy, and go on the road? Perhaps the anxious or depressed or borderline or whatever; and could one even, in this case, distinguish cause and effect?<br /><br />Larkin in The Reshaping of Everyday Life gives a vivid picture of the slow, awkward, flat affect presented by many nineteenth-century American farmers. Some of this may reflect inferiority feelings in the presence of urban observers--but I get the impression that a studied concealing of inner life is one of the key skills inhabitants of small, face-to-face, especially rural societies learn.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-85390157936589925672016-04-03T07:47:11.504-04:002016-04-03T07:47:11.504-04:00I am not a city person. When in D.C. I hang aroun...I am not a city person. When in D.C. I hang around the Quad, museums, tidal basin -- open spaces. An unsettling feeling weighs on me when I walk down a street surrounded by tallish buildings, and I am uncomfortable the entire time. It's not claustrophobia -- I can explore caves -- but may have something to do with the blocking out of sun and sky, the number of people, and the sterile unnaturalness of it all. The feeling goes away when I'm in a building. Strange. Going to New York City is an effort for me, not unlike readying myself for a brawl.Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.com