Human Healing in the Age of Science – The Art of the Healing Shift: Dr David Reilly

I believe passionately that our systems of care for mental health and addiction are broken and need transformation. Sadly, the same systems of care are generally resistant to change.

The situation continues to get worse for two primary reasons. Firstly, the negative consequences of modernity include an increase in emotional distress, disconnectedness, social isolation and addictions of various kinds. Ever increasing numbers of people are looking for help.

Secondly, the poor outcomes of our mental health and addiction care systems are leading to disempowerment and lack of hope, which in turn further increase the problems described above. Moreover, people seeking help are often blamed for not getting better, rather than the system accept its own shortcomings.

We have the knowledge to do so very much better. Sadly, those of us who are trying to transform these systems so that more people get better often bang our head against a brick wall. Vested interests play an important role in underlying this resistance to change.

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‘Want to reduce mental illness? Address trauma. Want to save the world? Address trauma.’ by Laura K Kerr PhD

Scapegoat‘Different explanations have been given for the increased number of people suffering from mental illness. Some have claimed the increase is the result of ever-expanding diagnostic criteria and syndromes that risk medicalizing normal emotional reactions.

Others argue the increase is the result of the pharmaceutical industry financially courting the medical establishment as well as using advertisements to attract potential users of their medications.

While both these arguments seem correct, they nevertheless fail to address that an increasing number of people regularly experience despair and anguish and are struggling to make a meaningful life, if not keep themselves psychologically, socially, and financially afloat.

I would like to suggest an additional explanation for the increase in mental illness: The upsurge is the result of the collective failure to alleviate conditions that contribute to trauma-related stress.

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‘The True, The Good and The Beautiful’ by Phil Hanlon

‘In this video Professor Phil Hanlon suggests that if we are to transcend the problems of modernity we will have to understand why we are in our current predicament. To do so, he explores Plato’s idea that human beings naturally integrate the true (science), the good (ethics) and the beautiful (aesthetics or art).

We do this in our private lives but modernity has allowed a perverted version of one of the three (a reductionist and numerically driven version of science) to eclipse the other two particularly in government and organisations. The result is ‘scientism’ which is an ideology, as distinct from true science, which is an invaluable tool.

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‘Endgame’ by Phil Hanlon

Continuing the excellent series of videos from Professor Phil Hanlon’s website Afternow.

‘In a finite world, infinite growth is not possible: this is the crisis of sustainability that people everywhere must now face. In this video Phil Hanlon describes how issues like climate change, peak oil, population growth and resource depletion provide convincing evidence that there are limits to conventional economic growth.

Almost every aspect of life is characterised by growth, peak and decline. This is true of species, physiological systems, businesses and much else. The problem is that we are not good, as a species, at seeing the point at which decline is likely.  

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‘Consumerism: Dissatisfaction guarenteed’ By Phil Hanlon

I continue the excellent series of videos by Professor Phil Hanlon centred around ‘What’s next for the health of society’ from his Afternow website.

‘In this video Phil Hanlon explores in more depth what ‘modernity’ is and why it has created current levels of ‘dis-ease’ in the modern world.

Modernity has brought many benefits (including technological improvements, material comfort, modern medicine and health care etc), but the downside includes the ‘dis-eases’ rehearsed in the earlier videos. 

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‘Dis-ease’ by Phil Hanlon

I continue the series of videos made by Phil Hanlon, Professor of Public Health at Glasgow University. Check out all the video and writings on Phil’s Afternow website. I love this website – what Phil has to say is very important.

‘In this video Phil Hanlon suggests that the public health problems we now face (such as obesity, enduring health inequalities, the rise in mental distress, and increasingly problematic use of drugs and alcohol) have a common source: they are the result of the increasingly adverse effects of the mindset and approach which characterises modernity.

They can helpfully be thought of not as ‘diseases’ but as ‘dis-eases’, associated with modernity.  

He suggests that the biggest problem we face may be modernity itself, which means that the health and wellbeing issues which confront us can no longer be addressed by conventional forms of thinking, tools or approaches. 

We now face what might be called an ‘ingenuity gap’.  This is the gap between the problems we face and the adequacy of the tools available to create solutions.’

‘Want to reduce mental illness? Address trauma. Want to save the world? Address trauma.’ by Laura K Kerr

ScapegoatIt’s time we spent more time reflecting upon the role of trauma in mental health problems and addiction. Here’s a thought-provoking blog from Laura K Kerr.

‘Different explanations have been given for the increased number of people suffering from mental illness. Some have claimed the increase is the result of ever-expanding diagnostic criteria and syndromes that risk medicalizing normal emotional reactions.

Others argue the increase is the result of the pharmaceutical industry financially courting the medical establishment as well as using advertisements to attract potential users of their medications.

While both these arguments seem correct, they nevertheless fail to address that an increasing number of people regularly experience despair and anguish and are struggling to make a meaningful life, if not keep themselves psychologically, socially, and financially afloat.

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‘New wave’ by Phil Hanlon

The second of a series of top-quality videos on the future of public health by Glasgow professor Phil Hanlon. Fascinating and bigger picture stuff from his Afternow website.

‘What’s next for the health of society?  In this introductory video Phil Hanlon highlights a number of daunting challenges for public health in the 21st Century.  He explains how what might be called the dominant mindset of the modern age can be characterised by its ability to understand, predict and control the natural world – an approach which was subsequently extended to the social world. 

In Public Health, this ability led to a number of  ‘waves’ of health improvement in the period since the Industrial Revolution, many of which remain with us and are important for health today, even though they peaked in effectiveness some time ago. 

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‘The crisis of modernity’ by Phil Hanlon

Recently, I introduced you to Professor Philip Hanlon. Mark Gilman had told me about Phil and his work and I am excited by what he and his colleagues are doing. Over the coming weeks, I’m going to show a series of film clips which describe Phil’s Afternow project.

On the relevant webpage, Phil says:

‘Modernity has brought many benefits (including technological improvements, material comfort, longer life expectancy and improved health), but the downside includes the emergence of new problems which stem from the way we live our lives and structure our society.

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