Mental Health: Biology, Agency, Meaning

The past twenty years have manifested worrying trends in the field of mental health in the United States. Most concerning is the increasingly popular idea that mental disorders are best understood as brain disorders. From this point of view, when confronted with an overly-energetic little boy, parents are informed that their son has a “brain disease” which causes inattention and hyperactivity and that this disease is best treated with drugs. Likewise, a person suffering from a major depressive disorder is told that her depression is caused by a “chemical imbalance” in her brain and that this imbalance is best treated with other chemicals that can restore equilibrium to her brain’s chemistry. The idea is not just common – it is ubiquitous. “Everyone knows that mental illness is caused by the brain; those are the facts.”

And therein lies the problem. Those are not the facts.

In this groundbreaking study, William Schultz demonstrates on both philosophical and scientific grounds that mental disorders are best understood not as brain disorders, but rather as solvable problems of personal agency and meaning. This book is essential reading for clinicians, practitioners, philosophers, and any interested in the future of mental health.