I am going to explore the differing perceptions, classifications and treatments of mental illness, in particular depression.
Key Themes
Personal: The sufferer’s explanation
Scientific: A biochemical explanation of the causes and symptoms, and consequent treatment using medicine
Holistic: Classification of a mental illness takes into account the patient’s experiences, cognition processes and learned behaviours, which therapy seeks to overcome
Social: The onlooker’s explanation and the stigma in society
Foucault: Modern psychiatry, although grounded in scientific truths, is primarily a system of moral judgements. Treatment of the mentally ill can be seen as society’s way of controlling what they deem to be immoral / undesirable.
Sartre: Man has the freedom to choose what their life is, however many of us live in bad faith by hiding from this freedom as it is accompanied by the responsibility to have meaning; man is condemned to be free.