Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I grew up with a parent with severe mental illness and a person now in my immediate family has a similar condition. So while I'

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I grew up with a parent with severe mental illness and a person now in my immediate family has a similar condition. So while I've never formally studied psychiatry, psychology and neurology, I've been submerged in the lingo, treatments, concepts and philosophies for most of my life. I lean heavily on the mechanisms of thought and mind because even now there is a tremendous amount of stigma and mysticism surrounding mental illness. I've encountered even mental health providers who still speak or act as if patients have a failure of character or personal weakness. I've encountered specialists who aren't really even familiar with CBT or who still think digging up trauma repeatedly a la Freud is useful. I encounter a kind of dualism all the time, as if the mind is some kind of sick spirit inhabiting the brain. I agree though. Treatments can function at a more macro level. I think this is demonstrated by something as simple as venting about a problem or person. A resentment or regret that is stopping one up finally falls to the side when one talks to a friend about it. These high level concepts we have about objects and people and concepts clearly have some power to drive the lower level. Attempting to resolve some issue a person might have with their spouse at the neuronal level would be a bit like building a house up from atoms rather than timber.