Psychiatry, Religion, Taoism
Conventional psychiatry does acknowledge the truth of Tao, although most psychiatrists are possibly not aware of what they are doing. In Scott-Peck’s work The Road Less Travelled, the psychology of love and truth are examined less conventionally, and here there is some deeper acknowledgement of the links between deviation from the Tao and causes of mental illness. But this approach is not conventional psychiatry, although in my opinion it is dazzlingly more accurate.
The most well worn adage “you have to want to change” is a cliché because of its truth. Taoists sometimes use the dragon as a symbol – it represents change and the power of change. If one resists change, then one can not be cured of mental illness. When one is ill one sometimes denies it vehemently, especially for mental illnesses which hurt other people. How can such a person be cured? All the energy and counselling of a thousand shrinks can have no beneficial effect on a person who is entrenched in their own obstinacy. In such a scenario the counseller is fighting to exert healthy forces on the patient, but the un-yielding patient is merely wasting all that energy – all that loving counselling. But when the patient acknowledges that they are not actually perfect, or indeed mentally healthy, then they can become receptive to the love of the therapist. When the patient decides they want to change, that is the moment that they have surrendered their ego. Then they become receptive. Then the counseller can do their job successfully. Then they can grow. The therapy ceases to be a struggle and changes to effortless action – the essence of following Tao.
And change is strength. If the patient does not change they remain spiritually crippled. Their relationships will quite likely continue to suffer from their mental illness, and they will not reach the happiness which they could reach if they changed. Change is strength: not weakness.
An instance of this occurred with a friend who visited a psychiatrist. She referred herself in the first instance, and she was determined she wanted to change in any case. But when she was offered some drugs for her condition, she was offered the advice “you have to want to take them”. The shrink was holding back, not exerting his ego on her. That was a Taoist approach. Unfortunately, the shrink wasn’t competent and he wasn’t seeing clearly what was in front of him. And that bit was going against Tao.
Good psychiatry does follow truth. Tao. It is this rigid adherence to the truth which often causes friction with those guilty ill people who know that the truth is going to expose the badness inside them. They are not comfortable, and often reject the psychotherapeutic process which is bound to expose them.
What does psychiatry makes of religion? I mean if you actually look at religions a bit close up. Many of us think it is respectful to be tolerant of other people’s religions, but how would a very ruthlessly scientific psychiatrist see religion?
Imagine if you went to a shrink and said