A “General Theory of Mental Suffering”, and the Role of an Innovative Narrative Therapeutic Approach

Abstract

This article proposes alternative understandings of certain structuralist informed (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - DSM-IIIrd to 5th Eds.) configurations of mental disorders. Life’s negative discourses and the mind’s captive responses present a “general theory of mental suffering” which phenomena are classified as modernist, DSM mental disorders, such as addictions, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Recent research has indicated that the psychedelic drug, psilocybin, has produced safe and effective outcomes for these mental suffering states. In this context, the article draws on the concept of brain plasticity order, firstly, to identify the means for a person to move away from subjection of life’s negative, dominant discourses that “capture” the brain, and then to intentionally move towards more acceptable, preferred, ethical subjectivities. These explanations, using the phenomenon of depression, provide the foundation for further proposals that an innovative form of narrative therapy could be a safe, effective and meaningful approach for persons in relationship with other similar ways of mental suffering, such as, anxiety, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia nervosa.

Mental Suffering: Buddhism, a Post Modernist Western View, and the Mutual “Path to Happiness”

“…• aspects of basic Tibetan Buddhist philosophies and views in relation to understandings of Buddhist suffering in life, and the nature of contextual 1 issues (Bracken & Thomas, 2005, pp. 105-107, 133) for current mental suffering phenomena (Botha, 2021); and,…”

“…The post-structuralist approach is to prioritise the voices of persons with their own, unique lived experiences of relationships with mental suffering phenomena (Botha, 2021). This provides a more appropriate approach for a comparative analysis with Buddhist views and philosophies.…”

“…This article commences with a short, but necessary, account of specific comparative aspects of knowledge creation between Buddhist beliefs and a post-structuralist, Western approach, that are relevant to the focus and aims of the article. This account is to facilitate understandings of linkages to common ground of related Buddhist ideas and beliefs of life, and Western views on alternative insights, knowledges and understandings of mental suffering (Botha, 2021), as well as similarities in regard to post-structuralist narrative therapy, and the ways of the Buddhist "path to happiness".…”

“…In this respect, American psychiatrist Ron Leifer (2008) has stated that: Genuine knowledge is based upon experience, observation and reflection, not the words of others, regardless of their credentials" (2008, p. 91). This approach is aimed at hearing the specific explanations and understandings from persons as to how they live and feel the experiences of mental suffering (Botha, 2021). In other words, in the process of constructing these genuine knowledges, persons would have…”

“…A recent article (Botha, 2021) proposed ways for alternative understandings of certain DSM mental disorders. They have then been termed states of mental suffering, created by processes that "capture" the mind, and the proposal was referred to as a "general theory of mental suffering."…”