When we use the term “mental illness”, not brain illness, do we put our patients in harm’s way?

………Drs Mary Baker and Matthew Menken

Baker and Menken challenged their colleagues in the medical profession with this question in an article titled “Time to Abandon the Term Mental Illness” – published in the British Medical Journal, 2001.

Although most competent medical doctors should know that the terminology is used to describe physiological dysfunctions that disorder the brain’s semblance of mind and consciousness, that’s not how the general public understands the meaning of “mental illness”. To the laity, a “mental illness” is a weakness of character, an inability to cope with life’s difficulties, or a crisis of the soul. And Psychiatry’s’ hideous, misleading, metaphorical lexicon has given the general public words to corrupt into denigrating terms:

“Psychotic” – Where ‘psychosis’ is actually a potentially deadly neurological condition, to the general public, it equates with evil.

“Schizophrenia” – A devastating neurological disorder that at worst, can cause neurological detachment from reality, which can result in self harm or deadly harm to others. The historical figure that coined the term misconceptualized the condition and thus its root words together mean – split mind. The condition is no such thing, not a split mind, not a split personality, not a personality disorder. Yet, the commentariat uses the adjectival form of this term to describe intra-organizational conflict, or a group being divided against itself, or expressing diametrically opposed positions.

“Delusional” – This term has made an entry in the Urban Dictionary as ‘Delulu’ – as referring to a person that has unrealistic hopes and dreams, or a parasocial relationship with an admired celebrity

The tragic consequences of our lawmakers and policymakers’ ignorance about what a so-called mental illness is: Homelessness, a severe paucity of supported housing with 24/7/365 support staff, and criminally unjust policies like the IMD Exclusion. Those deficiencies are the gateway to criminalization – and criminalization can be a gateway to death.

No one who was “delusional” (neurologically detached from reality) when they committed an act of harm to another person should ever be jailed, prosecuted, or punished. However, the most gruesome acts of harm done – killing, to be clear, are the product of neurogenic dysmentia (so-called psychosis) and those afflicted as such that kill, are the prime targets for capital punishment. Through the entire march to ‘justice’ within the criminal adjudication system, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and justices of the highest court of the land had little to no comprehension of what a “mental illness” truly is and why the condition of the brain’s semblance of mind in these neurological disorders – warranted full exculpation.