The Person With Mental
Illness:
Bearing God’s Image (Pamphlet Version)
Rev. Richard Gill,
L.C.
Pope John Paul II has written: “Whoever suffers
from mental illness ‘always’ bears God’s image and likeness in themselves, as
does every human being. In addition, they ‘always’ have the inalienable right
not only to be considered as an image of God and therefore a person, but also to
be treated as such.”1
In recent decades, the world has grown much more
effective in mobilizing against major health threats such as AIDS, heart
disease, cancer and the diseases whose statistics frighten us with their
devastating impact on humanity. It is relatively easy to raise awareness of such
threats and marshal human and financial resources to combat them. In the area of
mental health, however, the situation is quite different.
Incidence of Mental Illness
It has been estimated that worldwide, as many as
500 million people are affected by some sort of mental illness. It is also said
that the United States has the highest rate of mental illness of all the
advanced nations: one in four adult Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental
disorder in a given year. Yet there is relatively little public awareness of the
scope of the problem. And tragically, the stereotypes and stigma which are so
often attached to mental illness help to create a culture where those who are
affected are falsely seen as helpless victims or objects of charity.
Mental Illness and Our Culture
Without addressing in any great detail the range
of medical causes and treatments of mental illness or milder forms of mental or
emotional problems, it would be helpful to reflect on the impact of a culture of
violence and a culture of materialism. Causes of mental illness vary widely,
from inherited chemical imbalances responsible for the development of such
illnesses as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, to brain disease,
to causes that are more immediately under our control. These man-made causes
include, in many areas of the world, the spread of terrorism, the very purpose
of which is to inflict widespread mental and emotional suffering. War, with its
related atrocities and crimes, can bring out the worst aspects of our nature.
Additional challenges to mental health arise from
the general state of culture, the weakening of moral standards, and trends
within the culture that work against the true goods of the human person. For
many, especially the vulnerable, phenomena such as hedonism and materialism, all
too common in advanced societies, can foster exaggerated hopes of pleasure and
reward and distorted notions of what constitutes success. Unrealizable hopes
leave in their wake people who are severely discouraged and exasperated. Our
increasingly technocratic and production-oriented culture tends to neglect the
goods of the spirit, the things that make life more properly “human.” Human
values are defined more in terms of a “culture of having” rather than a “culture
of being.”
Our Response to People with Mental Illness
In a society that judges a person on the value of
what he produces, the mentally ill person is easily seen merely as a burden on
society. As Christians, then, we are called unceasingly to affirm their dignity
as human beings made in the image and likeness of God and to recognize their
value to the community. “It is everyone’s duty to make an active response; our
actions must show that mental illness does not create insurmountable distances .
. . Indeed it should inspire a particularly attentive attitude.”2
In what ways do mentally ill persons faithfully
reflect the image of God? In an address to health care workers in February 2006,
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Pontifical Council for Health
Care Workers, observed that “the mentally ill person resembles our Lord on the
cross; and since the cross is the only way to resurrection, the mentally ill
person … is worthier and reaches such a level of excellence because of the
magnitude of his love and the suffering he endures.”3
The dedication of so many individuals at work in
the field of mental health points us to the dignity of people with mental
illness. Often they work amid many difficulties, and it can be challenging to
recognize the human dignity of the persons they serve. Caregivers for people
with mental illness need a formation of the heart, because they are dealing with
human beings who need to be treated at every moment in accord with their
God-given dignity. Mental health care workers with a deeply Christian
understanding of the redemptive value of suffering will go beyond mere human
sympathy to authentic solidarity in suffering, a bond between persons rooted in
love.
In short, mental health care workers must have a
formation that gives them an authentically Christian understanding of the
person, made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ. A
formation that gives them a proper understanding of the person’s nature and
destiny will lead them to care for the person as a brother or sister, and to
seek as much as possible to restore the person’s interior freedom and the
capacity to orient his life toward the truth of his existence.
Society in general also has an obligation to
foster a serene, balanced way of life in stable families, a workplace promoting
true human goods and authentic growth of individuals, a solid consensus on clear
moral standards by which we will live together, and real objectivity about
behaviors which are detrimental to the health of the culture.
And finally, the Church community itself has a
great opportunity and responsibility to recognize and witness to the uniqueness
of each member. The parish community must create that counter-cultural
environment, in which all people can claim an equal place and contribute through
presence and action.
What can you do?
• Understand and show others that the
rehabilitation of mentally ill persons is a duty of all society, with special
preference for those in greatest need
• Welcome all persons with disabilities into the
parish community and embrace successful parish-based programs
• Promote social and physical environments that
enhance human relations and create for mentally ill persons a sense of belonging
to a community
• Foster the healthy development of children,
including their mental functioning
• Fight against mentalities of moral relativism,
consumerism, sexual license and instant gratification
• Share the Word of God with persons with mental
illness, as their mental and physical condition allows it4
----------------
Rev.
Richard Gill, L.C., was the Founding President of the Institute for the
Psychological Sciences in Arlington, VA. Since 2005 he is Director of Our Lady
of Mt. Kisco Family and Retreat Center in Mt. Kisco, NY.
1 Pope John Paul II, International Conference for Health Care
Workers, on Illness of the Human Mind, November 30, 1996.
2 Pope John Paul II, International Conference for Health Care
Workers, on Illness of the Human Mind, February 11, 1984.
3 Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, Address at World Day of the
Sick, February 11, 2006
4 Adapted from Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, Address at
World Day of the Sick, February 11, 2006
The full-length version of this article
is posted at
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/gill.pdf.
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