I have a question. Why does society tend to discriminate against people with mental or neurological disabilities or illnesses? Could this stigma have been born out of our social bias toward rationalism? Thus, anyone who does not live up to the 'rational' ideal is deemed 'dumb', 'retarded', 'stupid' or simply 'less than'?
Although, as a Muslim, I believe that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the last prophet and the last mercy to human kind, hypothetically speaking, if anyone claimed to be a 'prophet' in today's day and age, they would be immediately dismissed as 'crazy.' This person would be diagnosed with some severe psychological disorder, and put on meds, strapped to a strait-jacket and institutionalized. Why? Because in today's scientific, atheistic, secular world-view we completely dismissed the idea that 'rationalism' is not the only way of looking at the world; that there are other ways of seeing reality, not just through our rational and sensory faculties.
What if some people who are presumed 'mentally ill' are actually seeing the world much more clearly then we are? I am not saying that a psychopathic killer could be one of those people, but why are we reluctant to entertain such a possibility?
I believe people had a much greater grasp of reality in the classical period of human history than we do today - partially because we refuse to free our minds and hearts from this metaphorical modern strait-jacket of absolute rationalism, because we refuse to accept other ways of thinking.
This may also be why religion and more critically ‘faith’ is undervalued in today's society. After all, neo-atheism comes very close to condemning religious people to the ‘loony bin’ for believing in a God/Creator.
What do you think?
7 comments:
Assalamu Aleykum sister,
aMashALAH really interesting.My brother suffers from mental illness so it's a topic which I know quite well.
I guess the main reason why the society tends to discriminate people suffering from mental illness or disabilities is because this society is actually based on what you do, how much you earn, and how productive you are.Most of the time those people can't work and this have no "social status", they aren't productive and don't make money.Also there's a total lack of knowledge on mental ilnesses and doctors tend to label any disorder which they don't understand as "mental illness".People are mostly scared of what they don't know, therefore, mental ilness is something they fear as they can't really aprehend what it's all about.
Take care
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Salaam Aleykum Um Zakarya sweetie,
I think you are right – people are no longer valued for their intrinsic worth, instead they are values for their material achievements. It’s a little ironic, however, because some of the greatest geniuses and most famous individuals in the world abstained from worldly riches in pursuit of greater truths. Humanity is defined by many such paradoxes.
I always enjoyed psychology although I never did agree with most of it. Freud, who happens to be one of the most influential psychologists, just repulses me. Most patients tend to be misdiagnosed several times before the ‘right’ diagnosis is given. Psychology is much more of a qualitative science then quantitative, most of these things we cannot measure or test per se. It all depends what symptoms the patient exhibits at any given time, and sometimes these symptoms overlap and it’s really hard to give the correct diagnosis. And over the past decades, psychology, like economics and every other field in academia has suffered from “physics envy” – trying to be much more quantitative in nature in order to live up to the ‘rational’ scientific ideal. This is what causes all the problems in my opinion. If we just recognized other fields as worthy in their qualitative approaches, then we would start recognizing those other ways of thinking too. Religion cannot be quantified, that is why it’s so highly contested now a days too. We are trying soo hard to quantify and empiricize everything that we are missing the true nature of things.
@ireminisces - thank you for the words of encouragement. I will be sure to check it out insha'Allah.
salams,
i didn't quite understand the post completely. but i know i do agree with you on one point. people are often labeled 'crazy' just based on the fact that they have vastly different views on politics, ethics, or whatever. people outside the mainstream are labeled crazy, yet no attempt is even made to address their arguments or refute them. Simply labeling them 'crazy' or 'kooky' is apparently enough.
@y – I mean what if people who claim they ‘see things’, who have been diagnosed with some type of psychological disorder and called delusional are in fact seeing things we do not see? Just because the majority of us cannot rationalize the unseen to ourselves, it doesn’t mean it can’t exist. And we know that the gayb is there, Allah has confirmed it, and the prophets have experienced it through revelation. So instead of dismissing people like that as crazy, may be we can actually learn something from them?
May be this sounds crazy too (lol), but it’s just something I’ve been thinking about. What if people hadn’t believed the prophet’s, would we have religion today at all?
Salaam Sis Nida -
I think I WAS part of the crowd that was scared of or wary of those who had mental illness, but now that I am in the medical field and completed my medical schooling, my outlook or view has changed. Through the lkatter few years of my 6 year education - we were exposed, gradually to those with mental illness and this culminated with us having to interview a patient and file a full report to obtain our final credit in the 5th year.
Many of us found that some of the things that the patients said or did wasn't that far from the truth or at least our observations of society. In one instance, my group had what ended up being an OCD patient and he was describing how he always had to check and recheck his text messages before sending them, afraid he sent it to the wrong person - I do that all the time!! hahha! In other more severe phychoses, the patients who had delusions or sensory disturbances, seemed to be stating things that we thought were actually true - such as mobile phones giving out bad vibes and that the patient wanted to stay away from devices that we use daily.
In short, I find that I have a greater understanding of what they are going through. Of course, precautions need to be taken when it comes to society as a whole, but I think we all need to work towards gaining a greater understanding and compassion towards those who are affected by such conditions.
As for the question you posed on your last comment about if people hadn't believed in the Prophet's - in my limited knowledge, it seemed that Allah (swt) sent them at a time where change was needed, where people were suffering and needed someone whose ideas put them (the poor, the persecuted) in a place where they weren't judged by those earthly standards, but by what their soul, or inner being contained and that all were equal except by their deeds, etc.
After all, the Prophets we know of, the stories were in general of a similar flavor - just the setting/location was different, but the same essential message was sent and in each of those times, one faction of society was being shunned or disregarded and more often than not, those doing the oppressing had forgotten or not known the Almighty in the spiritual sense of the word and rather had put themselves on a pedestal of power.
Br. / Dr. Anees
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