Why does science treat mental problems medically, not spiritually?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, when mental problems are becoming so severe, why is most treatment gravitating towards medical treatment in terms of, say, treating some, it is a brain disorder to be cured through chemicals rather than looking for spiritual solutions? Actually, spiritual solutions are also being adopted. Many people do practice meditation and many doctors also recommend meditation.
But meditation is seen more as an alternative therapy or as an additional therapy. It is not seen as a mainstream therapy. If we want to understand the reason, we have to go actually into the history of science.
That science, as it developed historically, chose to focus on material explanations for material phenomena. This is a methodology of science called naturalism. That means science observes the world and looks for natural explanations for all phenomena.
So, this has its utility. That, say, if somebody has got black plague. So, there were people in Europe at that time who believed that there are some evil spirits who have caused the black plague.
So, the scientific approach was, if we look for some supernatural explanation, then we would have never found a cure for that. So, look for some natural explanation. And this is good.
Look for natural explanation for natural phenomena. That is good. But what if natural explanations are not complete? Then ruling out as a matter of principle all non-material explanations, that becomes a stumbling block in the progress of knowledge.
So, because of this methodology of naturalism, science tries to treat the whole human body, not just the human body, the whole human experience itself, as a material phenomena. And because it treats it as a material phenomena, it has to be treated also materialistically. And that’s why the mind or consciousness, whatever you want to say, because in the western intellectual circles, beyond the brain and the body, whatever is it is called by the common word mind.
In the Bhagavad Gita, there is a soul, there is the mind and the body. But in the western world, there is matter and there is spirit. Sorry, there is matter and there is mind, which they often equate with spirit.
So, the point which I am making here is, without getting into technicalities, that the mind is reduced on to matter and mental problems are treated as material problems. Material means physical problems, to be treated by physical means. And because of that, the most of psychology is reduced on to psychiatry.
Now, there are some situations where there may be authentically some disorders in the brain. Some chemicals may be in imbalance, sometimes there may be brain damage. And at such times, we can’t expect, at that time, bodily treatment is required, physical treatment is required.
But there is a tendency to try to find chemical solutions to human problems. Chemical solutions to human problems means, if I have anxiety, if I have stress, now this is, I can’t just take a chemical and solve this problem. It’s a matter of lifestyle, it’s a matter of mental attitude.
And antidepressants have become one of the biggest drugs which are being sold today. But still people continue to be depressed. Antidepressants basically act like painkillers.
Sometimes the depression goes off, you feel good, but afterwards again it goes down. So holistic treatment needs to recognize that consciousness is not just material. That there is an irreducible spiritual basis for consciousness.
And because science has not yet recognized that, that’s why the focus is more on biochemical treatment, through brain math, through administering the brain chemicals. But it is very hazardous. I am currently writing a book on psychology and spirituality.
So I have done some, I did a lot of study of this subject. So there was, as a, so this is not just, it is not that we are religionists, we are criticizing science. No, even with the mainstream science there is a lot of concern that psychiatry is not seen as a science as equally authoritative as say orthopedics or heart surgery or something like that.
Why? Because in psychiatry you can’t really take any germs. You can put on a plate and put under a microscope and treat them. So what, as an experiment, there was, they did that, there was one patient who had eight symptoms.
Okay, I have stress, I get panic, I start palpitating, and he took eight symptoms and he went to eight different psychiatrists. And all eight of them gave entirely different diagnosis. So how is that? How could they have given an utterly different diagnosis? Because there is nothing tangible on which to base a diagnosis.
So out of those eight, say if one psychiatrist focused most on, say, anxiety, then you could say there is a social anxiety disorder. Well, anxiety is a human problem. Just give it a name, social anxiety disorder.
It doesn’t change anything. But it’s just people think that, oh, I have a disease and I have to take treatment for it. No, it’s just basically fear which you have to deal with or anxiety you have to deal with.
So trying to find a pill for every mental problem, that doesn’t work. And that’s why spiritual wisdom is very important. And as devotees, if somebody is facing mental problems, some problems of the mind, we should not stigmatize them, saying that, oh, that is also a big problem, stigmatization.
You are just weak-minded. Well, okay, even if we say they are weak-minded, if a child is weak physically, no, we help the child to become strong. We don’t just label them as weak-minded.
So that was another problem that if somebody is having mental problems, people start saying that, maybe you are on crack or something like that. It’s not like that. Mental problems also come sometimes because of past karma.
And if somebody has a relative, some people can have a sickly body, some people can have a healthy body. So just like some people, they can eat anything and still they stay healthy. Others just eat a little imbalance in their diet and they fall sick.
So now why is that? It’s just their bodily natures are different. So sometimes like that, similarly, some people can take a lot of mental input and still stay calm. Others, a little mental imbalance and they get very worried.
So this is also just as we are understanding if some people want a very regulated diet. We are understanding that their body is in nature, that’s what they should have. So like that, if some people, their capacity to take up mental pressure is relatively less, then we should also be understanding, we should not label them as weak-minded.
They also need to, then maybe just as people take physical diet properly, according to their constitution, according to their nature, then people also need to take up professions where the stress level is not too much. Even in bhakti one should take up services which are more or less gelling with one’s nature. So the mental problems should not be labeled simply as weak-mindedness.
Just become strong. It doesn’t work like that. One has to actually go through a purificatory process by which one’s orientation may change.
So they also need to be supported. So we can’t say that it’s just, it’s only a physical problem, just take chemicals and solve it. We can’t just say it’s a mental problem in the sense that just buck up, be strong man.
It doesn’t work like that also. And it’s, we can’t at all times say there’s only a spiritual solution. Somebody may be having clinical depression and we can’t say just chant Hare Krishna and everything will be alright.
So we have to actually, if somebody is facing this kind of problem, we have to be very understanding and help them in a way that they are helped rather than becoming judgmental about them. But certain… I know someone, ultimately there was a… Yeah, there are certain disorders where medical treatment is required and to make a principle that a devotee should never take medical treatment for mental disorder, that is also wrong. But to think that every problem will be solved by medical problem, just medical treatment, every mental problem, that’s also wrong.
We need a balance based on a holistic understanding.