Tag Archives: #mental health

A Mental Health System With Soul?

Posted on by Standard 1

The social issue we are going to explore in this essay is the role of the mental health system in Wales in managing people with mental health conditions. There is a mental health crisis in the western world especially the UK, where according to Mind, a UK based mental health charity 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health condition of some kind each year in the UK. Other crisis’s which has effected the UK population such as pandemics, economic crisis and climate concerns as well as increased reliance on technology and divorce from the natural world has only added to the number of people experiencing mental ill health. The mental health system is meant to be a healthcare safety net for people experiencing mental ill health to manage and care for their needs while their unwell. However there is an increasing body of people known as psychiatric survivors who all feel they have experienced something of a human rights abuse in the way they were treated by the mental health system and its reliance on compliance to psychiatric drugs

The mental health system is an allopoietic system in that it has a purpose. “Allopoiesis is the process whereby a system produces something other than the system itself.” (online dictionary, 2022)

The mental health system is a subpart of the general health system and its purpose could be defined as a system which helps manage individuals mental health crisis’s, nurse a person suffering from mental ill health back to healthy functioning and look after the health and social needs of those deemed unwell. If its purpose is to restore health, why then are there so many people with mental health conditions simply taken out of the pool of societies workers, awarded social security benefits and are left to struggle at home with their conditions without receiving the proper care and support they need, or worse are abused by the system, losing homes, family members and dignity.

“ The least obvious part of the system, its function or purpose, is often the most crucial determinant of the system’s behaviour.” (Meadows, D H 2008 p. 16)

So the purpose of the mental health system needs to evaluated and understood and if its purpose is to provide a health service, then real discussion is needed on how effective it is at achieving the health goals of its clients.

There are many stories which can be listened to from psychiatric survivors of mistreatment by the modern mental health system from people in all strata’s of society, from notable celebrities like Frank Bruno to You Tube celebrities like Lauren Kennedy who runs a popular channel called “Living well with Schizophrenia” and produces videos on all aspects of mental health including forced medication and being excluded from society. I propose that due to a growing number of stories, as well as several movements of psychiatric survivors from those who have been vocal about their treatment by a system that is meant to heal them, not including those who feel too unwell or unable to complain, that the mental health system needs a redesign. For the purpose of this essay I will be exploring human centred or user experience design and systems thinking, ecolinguisitcs and craftivism when considering how I could contribute to the redesign of the mental health system over the future course of my design career.

Design thinking is an exciting new paradigm for dealing with complex problems including environmental, political or social issues. It is an optimistic positive approach using design methods to look at a problem and its solutions in a new way. User experience and design empathy is important in design thinking as it often look at a problem from a users perspective.

“Human-centred design and design thinking have become popularised over the past 20 years largely to improve a company’s creative innovation potential— as well as the bottom line” (Kelley and Kelley 2013 cited by Jones, H 2022) and is useful not only for commercial enterprises but also for designing around social issues and systems.

I have a mental health condition which I am told requires lifelong treatment so I will likely be working with the mental health system over the next few years of my design career and I hope to play an active role in the way the service is delivered not only to myself but to others also by highlighting the issues and providing feedback to the service providers and volunteering for mental health charities who press for change. I can also use my art and design work to participate in craftivism, Craftivism or activism through craft to tackle social injustice is the way of the peaceful warrior in creating arts, crafts and designs which press for cultural change. I exhibit art in my local area with an artists group called the “Last Foundation” and I can use the exhibitions to highlight the concerns in the mental health system and showcase the work and talents of people with mental health conditions.

When looking at the design of the mental health system its worth noting that there,s been a paradigm shift in design thinking itself in recent years when designing for the greater good in things like health services, education systems or charities and that shift is based around who does the designing. In the past it was just the stakeholders who did the designing employing specially trained designers, but now we are looking at scenarios in service design, where everyone does the designing and innovation is everyone’s responsibility.

To have a fully human centred design of the mental health system the design of it would need to be done not only by isolated trained experts, but by those who are on the front line of the services, people such as mental health nurses, social workers and even the service users themselves.

“That same kind of revolutionary shift is under way today in innovation. Innovation I, the old paradigm, looks a lot like quality assurance. It is isolated in experts and senior leaders, decoupled from
the everyday work of the organization….. we are seeing the emergence of Innovation II, the democratizing of innovation. In this world, we
are all responsible for innovation. Even the term itself has a new meaning. Innovation isn’t only—or
even mostly—about big breakthroughs; it is about improving value for the stakeholders we serve. And
everybody in an organization has a role to play” (Liedtka, J, Salzman,R, Azer, D 2017)

If I as active participant in its innovation was going to redesign the mental health system using design thinking I would certainly need to utilise design empathy and to get to know the clients, or the users of the system from the inside out and design for these clients foremost, I would also draw on my own experience of the system which has at times been less than human. “In moving ‘beyond designing’ in its current form today, Jones reminds us that we should ‘not forget what is still important— the humanity’” (Jones 2020 cited by Jones,H 2022) especially when designing something for the vulnerable.

This humanity is fundamentally what often seems to be lacking in the current way people with mental health conditions are treated, where illness is not always seen as a very human problem, but something of a materialistic scientific puzzle focussed on biological processes and chemical imbalances in the brain and it is the humanity and empathy with peoples lives, soulful concerns, needs and care which would have to be put foremost in a redesign of a complex health system. A new way of looking at the system from a design thinking perspective specifically addresses this problem

Driving this approach has been an imperative to better understand what users need. The central tenet of human-centred design and design thinking is empathy— putting users first in the design process to create more applicable products and services. This has led to many useful innovations, from redesigning patients’ and medical practitioners’ experiences, to making cycling more accessible (Brown 2008 cited by Jones, H 2022)”

The Hasso Plantar Institute of Design at Stanford first evolved the concept of five phases in design thinkingwhich involvesempathising with the users, defining the problems, ideating and coming up with ideas, immersion or development of these ideas, prototyping or developing these ideas on a grand scale or real life scenario before leading to actually testing these ideas.

While empathising with the users of the mental health system, we need to look at the stories they tell about themselves and their treatment, as well as the stories they are told by their doctors, friends and family and culture and media about their mental illness.

“stories are the secret reservoir of values; change the stories that individuals or nations live by and you change the individuals and nations themselves (Ben Okri, 2018)

This includes looking at the names or labels given to people with mental health conditions, the DSM is the psychiatric bible which contains the names of all the disorders with all the symptoms, but many of these names have loaded meanings or stories attached to them. Renaming the disorders with less stigma attached names with better stories such as schizophrenic being renamed to creative daydreamer may do a lot to change how the illness is perceived and handled.

The whole system has to be taken into account as well as the culture in which the system is placed with all their stories and guiding narratives, competing ideologies and worldviews.

Social systems are the external manifestations of cultural thinking patterns and of profound human needs, emotions, strengths, and weaknesses. Changing them is not as simple as saying “now all change,” or of trusting that he who knows the good shall do the good. (Meadows, D H. 2008.p. 167)

Looking at the stories and cultural thinking patterns which a system is formed by leads us to the study of ecolinguistics.

In essence, ecolinguistics consists of questioning the stories that underpin our current unsustainable civilization, exposing those stories that are clearly not working, that are leading to ecological destruction and/or social injustice, and finding new stories that work better in the conditions of the world that we face. These are not stories in the traditional sense of a narrative, however, but rather discourses, frames, metaphors and, in general, clusters of linguistic features that come together to covey particular worldviews. (Halliday (2001)

Ecolinguistics is not only useful for considering ecological issues but also social issues by examining the stories we live by and make up our world or culture. The redesign has to be considered not only from the perspective of human centred design and looking at the needs of the users and participants in the system with empathy and humanity but also by evaluating the stories and cultural assumptions which cause the system to exist in its current form. The world-views which the designers and operators of the system hold which cause mental health to be treated in the way it is. Is mental health considered purely from a scientific mechanistic perspective for instance?

A paradigm shift in the way the mental health system operated could only occur when the main stories which make up its current functioning, such as the chemical imbalance theory for mental health were effectively challenged and overturned. Service users too would have to be revaluated not just as service users, a sick and disabled “useless” class whos function is to consume psychiatric drugs and use the services but as living breathing human beings with complex issues in their lives and culture which could be contributing to their mental ill health and whom also have unique abilities and talents which can contribute in a meaningful way to society. These service users also cannot be considered in isolation, but as people who are part of the greater whole of society and the natural world.

Paradigms resist change because they are driven by complex vested interests, habits and assumptions that sustain each another and are embedded in the language. Words and metaphors reveal some opportunities but hide others. By identifying ‘unthinkable-possibles’ then ‘re-languaging’ them, we can create ‘future-possibles’.(W, J 2022)

To identify unthinkable possibles we need to look at other cultures and their stories which will be different to ours in the UK on how they imagine people with mental health conditions to be. In some shamanic cultures for example people who exhibit signs which we would say are signs of a mental disorder, indicates

“the birth of a healer,” …Thus, mental disorders are spiritual emergencies, spiritual crises, and need to be regarded as such to aid the healer in being born.

What those in the West view as mental illness, the Dagara people regard as “good news from the other world.” The person going through the crisis has been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm” (M P Some, 2012)

In such cultures the person is taken aside and trained potentially becoming a shaman for their society. The article “what a shaman sees in mental hospital” which quoted Malidoma Patrice Somé an elder from the Dagada community of Dano, West Africa popularised this theory and gave people in the west including the mentally ill a new way of seeing their illness. The scientific paradigm doesn’t consider the spiritual or the soul in their mental health care, and the crisis was not in other cultures just something of a chemical imbalance but a real spiritual and existential crisis which needed careful management and treatment with care compassion, humanity, empathy and sharing in community. In their culture a person undergoing such a crisis could come through to the other side with real gifts to share, empowered and strong and with a valid role in their soceity ,wheras in our culture such people are often simply wasted being considered disabled or sick for life.

The stories believed and told about the mentally ill person and what was occuring in their life being very different depending on the culture they belonged to with outcomes being very different depending on the stories that were believed, one leading to the birth of a healer or even a shaman with an important role to fulfil in their culture, the other leading to someone being considered disabled and sick or even useless in society.

A system for mental health would be very different in design depending on the underpinning cultural assumptions or stories that were believed about the people being treated. People are less likely to be abused by the system if the people being treated by the system are viewed differently, not just as broken people who may become a burden but as valuable members of society with something to give and share.

To conclude when contributing to the redesign of the mental health system and a mental health paradigm shift in my own life over the course of my design career. I can look at my circumstances and the circumstances of other people with mental health diagnosis’s with empathy and compassion. I can be an active participant in the innovation of the mental health system by being vocal about my treatment and providing feedback and working with mental health charities. I can utilise the tools of design thinking and human centred design in how I think about the problems people with mental health conditions face and contribute to coming up with better solutions. I can also participate in craftivism and use my art and design work to highlight the issues and showcase the talents of people with mental health conditions and show how we deserve better treatment. I can use ecolinguistics as a tool to re-examine the stories told to myself about mental health by the doctors, medical professionals, media and culture and challenge the assumptions or ideologies these stories are based upon to ensure I receive better treatment and care. I can reinvent myself using language stories and positive labels to tell my own stories to myself about my struggles and role in society. I can view myself not as a broken person but as an artist and designer and creative daydreamer who has been through a life changing transformative experience which has given me a unique insight into the systems we work with in the UK and the world-views and myths which govern our lives. There are millions of people with mental health conditions in the UK undergoing similar experiences and can all push for change with the right tools and insights. I can use my gifts of being a creative daydreamer to access the royal road of the unconscious and dream into being new paradigms, new stories and ways of being for our culture and society which is inclusive of all people including those deemed disabled or mentally ill and see life through a different lens.

REFERENCES

Corbett, S.P. (2017) How to be a craftivist: The art of gentle protest. London: Unbound.

Dam, R.F. (2022) The 5 stages in the design thinking process, The Interaction Design Foundation. Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process (Accessed: December 11, 2022).

Ecolinguistics (2022) Stories We Live By. Available at: https://www.storiesweliveby.org.uk/ (Accessed: December 11, 2022).

Halliday, M. (2001) New ways of meaning: the challenge to applied linguistics. In Alwin Fill and Peter Mühlhäusler (eds) The ecolinguistics reader. London: Continuum

Kennedy, L. (2020) My experience with forced medication, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vejAlrkRue8 (Accessed: December 11, 2022).

Liedtka, J., Azer, D. and Salzman, R. (2018 )Design thinking for the greater good innovation in the Social Sector. New York: Columbia Business School Publishing.

Midgley, M. (2014) Myths we live by. Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Meadows, D. (2008) Thinking in Systems. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Mind Charity UK (2022) Mind. Available at: http://www.mind.org.uk/ (Accessed: December 11, 2022).

nuffinlongtv (2017) Frank Bruno says mental health medication is destroying a lot of people , YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HxaGwKz620&t=1484s (Accessed: December 11, 2022).

Stickdorn, M. and Schneider, J. (2010) This Is Service Design Thinking: Basics–Tools–cases. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers.

Wood, J., Jones, H. and Lockheart, J. (2022) Metadesigning designing in the anthropocene. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Archetypes – Pure Forms in Reflection in the mind

Posted on by Standard Reply

So as I have been doing some inner work during the lockdown, and as Im returning from my cave now being that things are gradually returning to normal. I thought I would do some writing about the archetypes.

So what is an archetype? well they are found in Jungian Psychology to describe an “old pattern” that is found in the collective unconsious of humanity. So they are patterns and forms which are eons old (older than a single human life span) and influence human beings psychologically on an individual and grande/ collective scale.

We know about the iceburg model of the psyche where the part we are aware and consious of is tiny whereas the rest of the pyche is submerged with the hidden parts still hugely important. Well Carl Jung explored the psyche or the mind and found it was filled with mythical material and could provide access to some of the things we know of as the “spiritual realm”

So in our own minds there is actually a treasure trove of material both mythical and shadowy that has influenced us all our lives and even influences whole cultures collectively. You could even say the “shadows” or reflections of pure forms such as the gods are found in our own psyche (look at platos theory of forms) So these archetypes are mirror reflections of real pure form which are in the spiritual world.

One archetype I have mentioned already is the shamanic archetype – now this archetype emerges from the psyche when there is a crisis – so when we have a job loss, or health crisis, or some other breakdown in the usual running of our lives the shamanic archetype may appear as an age old form in our own minds to guide us through the crisis. So this may mean we may suddenly become interested in spiritual things, chanting, meditation, dancing, spiritual artwork and so on. The shamanic archetype has many facets and when it appears in our minds it can influence our behaviour in a myraid of different ways

So some of the other more famous archetypes you may have come across are not always so heroic. Some of them can be the victim, so if we repeatedly find ourselves playing the victim role in life it may be that we are influenced by this archetype – or wounded child if we experienced childhood adversity which may come to the fore. Magical or eternal/divine child may also appear like the shamanic archetype to guide us during a crisis and lead us to see the less serious side of life and play.

If someone you know is suddenly interested in witchcraft and astrology then they may be playing out roles from the witch archetype – not only are these archetypes in our collective unconcious influencing our behaviour from behind the scenes.

They also have their own narratives, so say the witch or shamanic archetype may clash with the church and the priest archetype – or they may go on quests like the heros journey. The archetypes are also found in tools like the tarot – and the major arcana of shows the fools journey or the heros journey in an archetypal narrative – which many events in our individual and global lives play out

They all run in patterns like seasons, but their old – their the basis of all our films and stories. You can predict events by them for instance when there is an universal calamity you know there is always a rebirth and reformation of order in a new form.

I have been experiementing with trying to find out what my unconscious archetypal influences are through doing the Shamanic Workbook on the school of modern soul science website and using Archetype cards to get to know all these old patterns and reflections of pure forms a lot better since it is apparent they have so much influence over my behaviour and the behaviour of others in my life. Once awareness is gained – so you may find you have definate influence by the victim archetype, martyr archetype and God archetype – so this may be something you want to change. If you are perpetually in the role of victim then this needs to be transformed to a different form and influence such as warrior or mother or some other more favourable archetype for a victorious life.

So gaining awareness of the patterns is the first step – to become aware as an OBSERVOR of whats going on with the archetypes and how these patterns are influencing your life. Their stories have been running in the collective since time immorial so if you allow them to they will run your whole life and you may become a personification of one of the archetypes such as fairy or shaman or witch or warrior. But in a way this is an honour as many people believe the archetypes we have in our psyche are are reflection of a pure form of them in the spiritual world. So they are in essence a pure expression of God. Its Gods creativity and divine story in the making running through the whole human existance and also the things we create (see platos theory of forms and the tree of life kabbalah – archetypal world) – so they are a fascinating and beautiful study of God which nobody ever mentions in places like church and it seems not everyone knows about.

Anyway I recommend learning what archetypes are unconsciously running your life and then choosing to live with them in union or break free for more conscious living – wondrous divine forms in reflection in the mirrors of our mind – hidden from us by our shadows along with our true self.

What images do you have in your mind?

Posted on by Standard Reply
Thoughts and options head with arrows on blackboard

During these times of lockdowns and health crisis’s as the world begins to try and return to normal or our new normal as the case may be. Many of us will have been doing some reflection and inner work during this time.

Inner work is something that never ends once you start – while you may heal any surface traumas or reasons for being in crisis there always remains more tools to learn until you can finally one day come to a stage of self mastery.

One such tool that is very useful during these times is guided imagery. Many people will have noticed that we are constanly bombarded with images – we dont notice half of them as we blank out constant advertisements billboards and other messages but this doesnt mean that our mind hasnt “noticed” those images – no they get slipped straight into the back of our mind our subconscious. When we watch tv and news reports during times such as these with the Coronovirus crisis we may be immediately overwhelmed by a series of fearful crisis images – people in scary masks, doctors and fearsome ideas of death and dying being imminant.

So, we may be strong and feel these images have no real effect on us and consciously we may be OK, but subconsciously those images have entered our thought life and begin to do their work in causing a darkened mind filled with fear and worry. The media is so powerful, at least as much as the advertising agencies in influencing our minds through images and nobody is immune. So what do you do during a crisis or a war when the images used by the media and other agencies get even more intense which may realistically threaten to over whelm our mental health

1 We can choose to limit our exposure to these images – maybe choose to watch less tv for instance and instead use to the time to learn something new or practise a calming and enjoyable hobby instead.

2 We can utilise Guided imagery

3 We can create art of our own positive uplifting healing images

I have already covered some benefits of art making in earlier blogs but we have never looked at guided imagery.

According to Martin Rossman who wrote the book Guided Imagery for self healing the brain has 2 parts one thinks in words and logic and the other part thinks mainly in images. So what is guided imagery? – guided imagery utilises the two parts of the brain and unites the conscious and unconscious by describing images and sensory experiences as a guided meditation to take the person on an experience which is beautiful enjoyable and healing.

The video below is an example of guided imagery “the forest awakens”

So in this kind of mediation the person goes on a journey filled with guided images which fill the mind and help cause a physiological response with is the OPPOSITE of fear tension and anxiety. So this is a perfect antidote to the fear based images we may receive in our minds from other sources.

Sometimes we may also find that we may be indoors more often in order to meet the demands of quarantine and to keep ourselves safe – so if we can take a guided imagery walk through the forest – this fills our mind and subconsious with beautiful images and scents and sounds which have a fully transformative and healing effect

Guided imagery can also be used to alleviate all kinds of sufferings like anxiety and pain or can even be uses to prepare for stressful life events such as speaking in public or preparing for an exam.

Guided imagery can also be uses to compost or transform old negative stuck emotions which may appear to be held in the body but are actually in the mind which appears to be non local. So an example would be to imagine all the things which have causes you anxiety over the last month and feel all that heavy material from that leaving your body and being composted into the ground – to be transformed into beautiful crystaline energy

There are wonderful guided imagery meditations found online to help with all sorts of life dillemas and anxieties including the current crisis – there is some great meditations and exercises by a lady called Anahita Joon – transforming fear into wisdom http://www.anahitajoon.com/

Guided imagery is used in Quantum healing accessing the archetypes of the subconscious mind as guided imagery connects both the conscious and the unconscious with great results for healing trauma

It utilises intention, attention and imagination which are great things for positive results in meditation and its free.

You could even record your own guided imagery sessions to use on yourself tailored to a specific issue you want to work on or alleviate.

Another thing that may be worth trying is recording the imagery of your mind in a journal – just taking some time to notice which sort of images dominate your thought life – you always have access to your true self and the Divine so you may have a great deal of positive images – but may notice all the subliminals from advertising, the fearsome media images, bad memories and so on in there again. So once you have made your mental imagery more conscious you can then utilse guided imagery to transform those images – so imagine what it would be like if the images were better and happier. This requires a great deal of vision which can take us out of a narrow fearful state and into a more expansive state and then we can note this down in our journal too – or even create some positive images or a vision board of a better outcome as goals to create

Dynamic guided imagery can be utilised in things like chakra dance where you can dance to a guided imagery session – ie you may dance around an imaginary camp fire or a crystal cave or in the ocean. https://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/courseoverview.cgi?cid=928

So in these times its great to have as many tools for positive mental health as possible and guided imagery is a great tool for healing satisfaction happiness and well being no matter the weather in life.