Chinese Medicine and Mental Health?

[ZIM]

Oh yes. The original Dementia Praecox as identified by Bleuler [?maybe he was first to coin the word/differentiate it from DP?] in Germany may very well have been a contagion from horses, so the story goes. Appaerently the population of his clients could be split to those who were infected with that and those who had the real thing as we now know it. The definition has thuis changed for what schizophrenia is, actually. Even the brain centers most involved in it have shifted location over time! heh

Further we can get into the whole question of whether or not the declaration of a disease entity promotes the nosology. This is curious, in that schizophrenia is a really modern illness. Before this you were just 'mad', but there were far fewer madmen, it seems, back then. societal Intolerance, perhaps? or a reframing of the question of madness?

As i said previously there is some debate as to whether or not the entity 'schizophrenia' is a cluster of related syndromes/illnesses. There are at least 5 varieties with various ways of showing themselves, some expressive some not at all. Curious. Thomas Szasz believed that it was more a 'problem in living' than a discrete disease, in that no organic brain damage was evident, yet the medications can and did cause brain changes. (Szaszs stuff is on the net, BTW)

Recent advances seem to point towards random misreplication of genetic material as the culprit, as if a certain percentage must be reached to achieve psychosis. Tempting but not proven yet. Anyhow that is all western aspects.

TCM I think has many bold ways of helping the afflicted with these disorders. the 'problem in living' approach in a sense, if we can view it in the sense of readjustment to bodily harmony.

Braden: only a comment on the west/east 'divide' perception. We forget too readily that the West is at once both very ancient and very young, mostly because we had our great industrial revolution that changed everything (tho some say it was neither industrial nor a revolution...but i'm vonnegut's love child, so i digress). We also forget to honor it- there is nobility and spirit in it, IMHO.

It seems that you got your answers too: approached from basically the same standpoint, preferred is acupuncture herbs, some counseling, holistic approach? The buddhist ways are very good for it too, i think, even here in the benighted west. The chinese have integrated some not all western neurology and psychiatry into their medical establishments, but also include some soviet and other countries' contributions (a wider palette then). Some political issues are involved (maybe overstated- we tend to hear much more about abuses, naturaly). There are some schools too, and i've given one. some more are in vancouver oregon, seattle, out that way.

Oh yes i forgot- politics does influence our [western] Tx as well, certainly and that taints results too we must own up to that. A quick look at Foucault can point that out superbly. Anyhow if the west science way has any strength it is a willingness to abandon its own BS if it finds it is BS, when its at its best. I hope to see much more acceptance of TCM [and MCM?] here in the west.

just rambling away..