"The information available suggests the incidence of depression has tripled over the last decade. Should we believe that means the state of health of our population has changed? Not for a moment," says psychologist-theorist Kenneth Isaacs, Ph.D., ABPP. "That figure actually is not about the number of illnesses, but is about the number of people being treated. Nor is it likely to be a result of broader knowledge of that illness. It is just as likely to be the result of broader misunderstanding. There are some unfortunate reasons why depression may rapidly become the most over-diagnosed illness in the lexicon."
"Medications for schizophrenia and endogenous depression have been near miraculous in their good effects. Totally incapacitated sufferers of these terrible diseases became able to participate quite fully in life, by administration of a pill or injection." According to Dr. Isaacs, "That success inspired the hope that pills could perform the same sort of marvel for a roster of personality problems. A pharmaceutical competition began."
"The problem is that most of those other mental disorders, those we have called neuroses, are not physiological problems." Isaacs pointed out that: "They are most often learned patterns that were developed in childhood to adapt to particular circumstances of life. Many are emotion storm or emotion muting problems. In either of these cases, finding a medication cure is comparable to finding a pill that will erase our knowledge of our native language and replace it with another language. If that were possible, we could take language pills as we traveled from country to country. That kind of transforming pill is precisely as unlikely for neurotic problems as it is for languages. Learning something new that supplants something previously learned cannot be dealt with as a physiological process. Both neuroses and language are learning issues, not physiological issues. Effective cure for a problem must deal with the basis of that problem."
"This thing that has happened in the mental health field," Isaacs continued, "is partially a result of focusing on surface manifestations rather than underlying processes. That makes trouble in distinguishing between the physiological (endogenous) depression and the psychological (reactive) depression. They are very similar at the surface. However, medications that are wonderful for endogenous depressions are useless or worse for psychological depressions."
"If we ignore the underlying processes, we fail to make distinctions among a variety of emotions and emotion states. We may not recognize that depression is a complex state that includes emotion, but also includes much more," Isaacs asserted. "Therefore, if a patient tells an internist, "I am depressed." it does not mean the patient's self diagnosis is accurate. Most often, in my experience, that kind of statement has meant the person was experiencing sadness, or was dispirited, unhappy, pessimistic, or hopeless. Depression is neither a great deal of sadness nor the depths of grief. It is not the bottom point of unhappiness. Mourning is not the same as depression. Loneliness is not depression. An internist should no more take the patient at his word about depression than he would if that patient complained about stomach pain. Any internist would translate stomach to abdomen and include consideration of other possibilities such as appendix, gall bladder, uterus, or pancreas. Taking the patient's self diagnosis as anything more than a possibility does the patient a disservice."
Isaacs continued, "This thing that has happened in the mental health field is also partly a result of the tendency to a reductionist view in biopsychiatry. It is an attempt to explain and deal with psychological matters through the related, but separate physiological matters. Although the relationship means they each have influences upon the other, it is a mistake to believe that physiology could possibly encompass psychology."
Dr. Isaacs summarized his view, "If the tripling of treatment for depression means that depression medication is being given to people who are sad, unhappy, grieving or dispirited, that treatment (which suppresses awareness of emotions) reduces a patient's ability to be aware of and work on problems. That disservice to the patient comes from the mistaken belief that we operate with a unitary mind. Our internists and family practitioners need to consider how minds work, if they are to help their patients. Suicide, which is a particular problem with both sorts of depressions, is also a particular problem with emotion storms. That is all the more reason the treatment should be appropriate for the actual problem."
In his book, "USES OF EMOTION" and his monograph "Unitary and Dual Minds in Philosophy and Science," Isaacs described the distinctly different functions of the two parts of mind and the implications of their separate functions for everyday life. He describes the ancient origin of mistakes in understanding mind and the unfortunate effects of such misunderstandings in philosophy and science.
Isaacs extensive writings examining many aspects of these matters, the logic, the science, and results of applications are readily available through his increasingly popular web-site http://www.usesofemmotion.com. The knowledge available there has produced permanent cure for sufferers of phobias, panic episodes, conversion disorders, reactive depressions, and other psychological disorders. The same knowledge has also enabled parents to be wiser in guiding children to use emotion for a healthy, creative life, free of psychological disorders.
Dr. Isaacs provides helpful explanatory materials through the web site. Some materials are written for the general public and college introductory classes in all mental health fields. Some are for professionals in psychology and philosophy of science, or for graduate school study in those fields. Three of Isaacs' books are available for downloading. Other books and journal articles will be added as soon as possible.
Isaacs, who has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Chicago, is widely known in the United States and Europe from fifty years of helping patients, students, and professionals through clinical practice, lectures, writings, and leadership roles in psychology's professional associations. He is recognized in several Who's Who books including Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, Science and Engineering, American Education, and Who's Who in the World. To learn more about his vision of dramatic advances in psychology for the 21st century, visit Dr. Isaacs' website at http://www.usesofemmotion.com.
