\u2018Mental problems\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the sake of this text, I categorize as such all issues regarded as psychological or psychiatric problems. In some way, one can also include psycho-somatic problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, one can plead for the term \u2018issue\u2019 instead of \u2018problem.\u2019 In coaching, this becomes quite relevant. For the sake of this text, \u2018problem\u2019 is more precise, especially at the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mental or moral?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a tendency \u2013 tradition, by now \u2013 to see mental problems as issues for which the affected individuals are not responsible \u2015 read: guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the reverse of a few centuries ago when mental problems were mainly seen as moral problems, from God\u2019s punishment to the result of morally wrong decisions in one\u2019s past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When they became diseases, very roughly around 1900, they still were seen as morally induced. Gradually, the brain took over as an explanation together with a mechanized view on the human being in health and disease, including mental illness. Doctors became technicians, including psychiatrists, diagnosing and treating disease A with therapy Z.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anti-psychiatry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the sixties and beyond, some psychiatrists rebelled (correct term) against what they saw as medicalization\/mechanization of mental issues. Above all, they saw and still see the causes of mental illness mainly in modern society\u2019s excesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this thinking, too much is being asked of individuals through rules or pressure to adhere to societal norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An increasing number of people fall off the mental cliff. Society, wanting to roll on and not take the blame, tries to pin them down before falling. This is, through treating them pharmacologically or otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this doesn\u2019t help, they are allowed to fall. Meanwhile, bad society goes on with business as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n