Letters to the Editor
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Mental Illness, Intelligence, Mental Handicap, and Physical Trauma
I saw Sen. Tim Johnson, of South Dakota the other night on tv. His family took great pains to inform the public that although he couldn't speak or walk well because he was still recovering from a brain hemorrhage, there is nothing wrong with his brain. It occurred to me that I had never heard that expressed before; not in life, not in movies, books...nowhere. People just seem to put up with exterior problems in such cases, and have a lot of shame about them, and forget that there's a real person in that impaired body.
It further occurred to me that I'd never heard that sentiment uttered regarding the mentally ill, either. Notwhithstanding, it is just as true about the people in that community. Those who are mentally ill suffer from a physical deficiency that affects their behavior, which is a reflection of how they feel, which is based upon how they see the world--just like everyone else; only, because of their disability, they are unable to process correctly and so are debased and abandoned to live in poverty, or worse. All for the lack of one little pill daily: there are too many parents destroying the lives of children before they even get into school, there are too many young people rightly or wrongly angry, there are dangerously ill people in places of power, and a national treasury's worth of unharvested lives and intellect to be found living on skid row.
When Leonardo da Vinci was nearly excommunicated because of his study of cadavers, the deal he made with the Roman Catholic Church was that he would cease seeking the soul and stick to investigating the physical body and the RCC would stay out of the physical realm. Thus were artificially cleaved by man two integral parts of who we are. It carried over into medicine, naturally, since they dealt with the body, but it got a bit contentious when the psychology of man began to be investigated.
Still, although there is continually more proof that humans are just as much emotional, mental, and spiritual being as physical ones, modern society, especially in the United States, seems loathe to act accordingly, and help these people to be productive citizens; not just for their sake, but for all of us; not just because it makes financial sense, but because it is the humane and right thing to do.
There is a huge difference between mental illness and mental retardation, but somehow, I have a sense that the two are far too often conflated. There is a huge difference is conditions; sadly, however, the same indifference.
What we revile in others is what we most fear in ourselves; let us remember that we are all brothers and that the God-by-any-name that so many profess to follow commands us to love each other.