They are symbolic constructs, based in the mind and expressed through the body. Like memes. As opposed to genes, which are also expressed through the body but w

They are symbolic constructs, based in the mind and expressed through the body. Like memes. As opposed to genes, which are also expressed through the body but which are chemical in nature. Perhaps “garden variety” depression and anxiety aren’t the best examples here, although both of them do have their severe forms and even clinical labels like “treatment resistant depression”. I’m thinking particularly of more severe diagnoses like bipolar or schizophrenia, which are generally assumed in mainstream western psychiatry since at least the 60s to be lifelong illnesses whose symptoms may be treatable with medication but for which there is no known “cure”. I’m speaking from the perspective of someone who watched his sister receive a bipolar diagnosis after a suicide attempt in late teens, and then watched her develop more severe “bipolar” behaviors as a result of the so-called antipsychotic drugs she was prescribed. Only years later did I realize that her suicide attempt was a direct result of severe chronic parental abuse that she was enduring at the time. Of course the relevant information never made it to the doctors who were forced to come up with a reason for a young girl attempting suicide, hence bipolar. My sister died by suicide last year. I can’t speak for others, but in her case the bipolar label was both a convenient cover-up for severe child abuse and essentially a death sentence for my sister’s soul and ultimately her life. I suspect that the same could be happening in many cases where abnormal or self-harming behavior is in fact a reaction to abuse. It’s just so much easier to tell someone that they have a chemical imbalance in their brain and it’s nobody’s fault, rather than confront a child abuse situation.