our legal system and much of our social culture are based upon the idea that a person is entirely responsible for the contents, structure and acuity of their ow

our legal system and much of our social culture are based upon the idea that a person is entirely responsible for the contents, structure and acuity of their own mind. this goes back to descartes, and is a prevailing theme throughout western thought. given what we now know about people and the way their minds work, i'm hoping we revisit these false beliefs. criminal recidisivm is a huge problem, and my guess is because the penitentiary model was based upon the idea that isolating someone and giving them time to think would cause them to reflect on the error of their ways. we can see now that it just warps a person's mind. i went through a long period of social isolation where my friends and even family pulled away from me because i was acting erratically. this erratic, bizzare behavior was _caused_ by feeling lonely and isolated, and further isolation made the problem worse. my guess is this is what happens to most drug addicts. they feel lonely or hurt, and find temporary comfort in drugs. their friends and family worry about them and stay away, for fear of making the problem worse and because being around unhappy people can make you unhappy. they sufferers find the drug using community accepting and welcoming - but only on a superficial level. you can light up a joint outside a bar in SF and instantly find yourself having 'new friends' who will disappear when the joint is gone. the desire for solace from pain and the longing for intimacy worsens the dependence on the drug and pushes loved ones further away. i understand why people pull away - they are afraid. i get that. but we used to fear anyone who was sick and put them in special colonies becuase we didn't understand sickness and thought it was demonic possession or evil at work. i'd suggest that the modern understanding of "psychosis as illness" is just as misinformed. we're using the best model we have of the day - when people don't work properly, they are ill - but that categorization implies that the problem lies in the person themselves, and not in the environmental conditions they find themselves in. if EVERYONE goes crazy when they're totally alone for too long, then it's not accurate to say that 'crazy' symptoms are signs of 'mental illness.' it'd be as if we diagnosed people with 'runny nose' syndrome. see more thoughts here: http://markpneyer.me/2014/04/02/the-way-we-understand-mental-health-today/ http://markpneyer.me/2014/04/02/the-way-we-understand-mental...