Keep It Real wrote:A mental disorder, also called a mental illness[2] or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning.[3] Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitting, or occur as a single episode. Many disorders have been described, with signs and symptoms that vary widely between specific disorders.[4][5] Such disorders may be diagnosed by a mental health professional.
This is hugely inadequate/inaccurate/problematic by my mind. If somebody commits a crime, and is caught and punished for it, that causes significant distress and impairment of personal functioning. If a spouse is unfaithful and get's away with it, with no feelings of remorse/guilt or projected thoughts of infidelity, then no problem. If they do have such feelings then they do have a mental illness however; likewise if they are busted by their spouse who is livid about it, but only after they've found out. If they're not angry at the infidelity, again, no mental illness. There are about a gazillion other examples I estimate.
Thoughts? Suggestions for a better definition?
Thoughts are that it's an inadequate definition but a) it's the best we can do with our current limited understanding and b) you
haven't chosen a very good example to highlight the problem.
Take OCD as an example. Sufferers find themselves compelled to perform rituals to an extent that it disrupts normal life and causes them distress - not because what they are compelled to do is deemed 'wrong' by some arbitrary moral code, but because it impairs their ability to live life in the simplest of ways. They fail to turn up for work because it's taken them an hour to get over the threshold, and they get the sack. They miss out on enjoyable things with their kids because they're so obsessed with them getting ill that they spend all their time endeavouring to create a sterile environment for them. They stock pile useless paperwork and their own shit and piss because they are terrified of parting with anything, and get evicted as a consequence. They're distressed by the knowledge that their disorder is controlling their existence and they seemingly can't do anything about it.
Guilt and anger about infidelity are emotions which some experience due to the morality we apparently have adopted. Perhaps if one feels compelled to keep having sex with people, that's a mental disorder. Infidelity however is a pretty normal behaviour in many places. Ask the French. It does seem to be a bit of a hot button issue for you though.
You'd have been better off exploring what is considered 'normal' and why. If someone goes about shouting at invisible sprites and kicking their trilby down the high street and gets his head kicked in as a consequence, is that a mental disorder, or is he just a person not adhering to some of the rules of society?
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