You are a mocking little thing. Do you like to fight? Fighting with mortals is no fun because it is no fair. The concepts of carousel of  mental health follows from the very conditions of human existence and it is the same for mortals in all ages and all cultures. Mental health is characterized by the ability to love and to create, by the emergence from incestuous ties to clan and soil, by a sense of identity based on one’s experience of self as the subject and agent of one’s powers, by the grasp of reality inside and outside of ourselves, that is, by the development of objectivity and reason. This concept of mental health coincides essentially with the norms postulated by the great spiritual teachers of the human race. This coincidence appears to some modern psychologists to be proof that our psychological premises are not scientific but philosophic or religious ideals. They find it difficult, apparently, to draw the conclusion that the great teachings of all cultures were based on rational insight into the nature of mortals, on the conditions for one’s full development. This latter conclusion seems also to be more in line with the face that in the most diverse places of this globe, at different periods of history, the awakened ones have preached the same norms, with none, or with little influence from one upon another. Ikhnaton, Moses, Confucius, Lao-tse, Buddha, Isaiah, Socrates, Jesus have postulated the same norms for human life, with only small and insignificant differences. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

Mental health is not physical, but it is about the total human personality in its interaction with the World, nature and morals; it is the human practice of life as it results from the conditions of human existence. To understand a living being, one has to take the action of mortals and their interaction with their fellow humans and wit nature as the basic empirical datum for the study of a real being. Our concept of mental health leads into a theoretical difficulty if we consider the concept of human evolution. There is reason to assume that the history of mortals, hundreds of thousands of years ago, starts out with a truly primitive culture, where mortal’s reason has not developed beyond the most rudimentary beginnings, where one’s frame of orientation as little relation to reality and truth as we now know it. However, should we speak of these primitive mortals as lacking in mental health, when they are simply lacking in qualities which only further evolution could give them? Indeed, one answer could be given to this question which open up an easy solution; this answer is based in the obvious analogy between the evolution of the human race, and the evolution of the individual. “Now these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me; therefore I shall forbear,” reports Alma 37. 11. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

If an adult had the attitude and orientation of a one-moth-old child, we would certainly classify that individual as unusual. For the one-month-old baby, however, the same attitude of sleeping all day, laughing and acting cute, crying at night when they want attention, food, or a nappy change is normal and healthy, because it corresponds to the stage of psychic development for the point in life. The mental sickness of the adult, then, can be characterized as a fixation or regression to an orientation which belongs to a former evolutionary state, and which is not adequate any more, considering the state of development the person should have reached. And when someone is in a state of regression, there is no question to it. It is similar, for example, to a girl sixteen years of age, who suddenly starts acting and talking like she is possessed by a five-year-old girl and doing things like having a tea party with a set of dolls and speaking like she is younger than she is. However, in regression, she has no idea of her age because of her mind trying to protect itself by taking her to another era, she is basically unconscious and unaware of her biological age. And until she is able to work through the trauma, she will not return to he normal state of development. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

In the same way one could say that the human race, like the infant, starts out with a primitive orientation, which correspond to the adequate state of human evolution; while one would call sick those fixations or regressions which represent earlier states of development after the human race has already passed through them. Attractive as such a solution is, it does not take into account one fact. The child one-month-of age has not yet the basis for a completely mature attitude. Therefore, one may not under normal circumstances think, feel or act like a mature adult. Mortals, on the contrary, for hundreds of thousands of years, have had all the organic equipment for maturity; their brain, bodily co-ordination, physical strength have not changed in all that time. One’s evolution depended entirely on one’s ability to transmit knowledge to future generations, and thus to accumulate it. Human evolution is the result of cultural development, and not of an organic change. The infant of the most primitive culture, put into a highly developed culture, would develop like other children in this culture, because the only factor determining one’s development is the cultural factor. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

In other words, while the child who is one month of age may not have spiritual maturity of an adult—whatever the cultural conditions are—any mortal from the primitive stage on, could have the perfection of mortals at the peak of one’s evolution provided one was given the cultural conditions for such maturity. It follows that to speak of primitive, incestuous, unreasonable mortals, as being in a normal evolutionary phase is different from making the same statement about the infant. Yet, on the other hand, the development of culture is a necessary condition for human development. Thus, there does not seem to be a completely satisfactory answer to this problem; from one standpoint we may speak of a lack in mental health; from another standpoint we may speak of an early phase in development. However, the difficulty is great only if we deal with the  problem in its most general form; as soon as we come to the more concrete problems of our time, we find the problem much less complicated. We have reached a state of individuation in which only the fully developed mature personality can make fruitful use of freedom; if the individual has not developed one’s reason and one’s capacity for love, one is incapable of bearing the burden of freedom and individuality, and tries to escape into artificial ties which give one a sense of belonging and rootedness. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

Any regression today from freedom into artificial rootedness in state of race is a sign of mental illness, since such regression does not correspond to the state of evolution already reached and results in unquestionably pathological phenomena. However, the unconscious mechanisms for protecting personality are essential; they help maintain a balance that enables us to make a sane way through life. Yet, sometimes the mechanism is weighty enough to upset the balance in unusual ways. Consider the follow case: A student enters a psychology class, consciously setting out to do a good job,learn a lot, and get a very good grade in the course. He has the tools: a good head (brain), lots of motivation, and a fair background. He gets good grades in classroom discussion and on his papers. However, on exams, he constantly gets F’s (denotes failure to comprehend the material). In his consternation, he comes to visit the professor. “What is this?” He asks both himself and the instructor. “I knew this stuff. I understand everything you are talking about. Your lectures are clear and understandable. The book is no problem. I can read and write well. I do not do this in other classes. What gives?” #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

The instructor and the student begin talking about the student’s home life, his motivations, his goals, and dreams. After a few weeks, a startling thing is unveiled: the student admits that he really dislikes his father. The father is a tyrant, unyielding and unresponsive to the student. The instructor tries something risky: he asks the student if there is anything about him—the instructor—that reminds the boy of his father. “No, of course not!” the boy begins. Then, he smiles. “Except….He is about the same height. He is very self-confident, like you are. Hey! There is a hecka lot about you that reminds me of my old man!” The young man has acquired a rather strong dislike for all authority figure because of the strong negative feelings he has for his father. He goes on to admit that he hates policemen and judges, he hated his commanding officer in the Army, and he has generalized this dislike to some of his male teachers. As it turns out, the young man continued to do poorly in this particular class. At the suggestion of the instructor, he entered into psychotherapy with a psychologist in his home country. Though he continued to have trouble with exams in this professor’s class, he managed to work out an arrangement with the teacher whereby exams were done in a different matter. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

After working with the professors, the student got better grades than he might have otherwise. However, what particular problem did the exam represent? The student later told the instructor that he felt the exams represented a power struggle between the students and the instructors. His hostility toward his father was such a source of concern and guilt to him that he did everything he could to minimize competition. He felt that if he lost the competition in exam-taking to the instructor, he would be doing some sort of penance for his hostility. Regardless of whether we speak of mental health or of the mature development of the human race, the concept of mental health or of maturity is an objective one, arrived at by the examination of the human situation and the human necessities and needs stemming from it. It follows that mental health cannot be defined in terms of the adjustments of the individual to one’s society, but, on the contrary, that it must be defined in terms of the adjustment of society to the needs of mortals, of its role in furthering or hindering the development of mental health. Whether or not the individual is healthy, is primarily not an individual matter, but depends on the structure of society. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

A healthy society furthers mortal’s capacity to love their fellow living beings and other organic and inorganic life. Another goal for a healthy society is to work creatively, to develop one’s reason and objectivity, to have a sense of self which is based on the experience of one’s own personal powers. An unhealthy society is one which creates mutual hostility, distrust, which transforms mortals into an instrument of use and exploitation for others, which deprives one of a sense of self, except inasmuch as one submits to others or becomes an automation. Society can have both functions; it can further mortal’s healthy development, and it can hinder it; in fact most societies do both, and the question is only to what degree and in what direction their beneficial and negative influence is exercised. Two things happened in the ancient World which separate medieval collectivism definitively from primitive collectivism. One was the discovery of personal guilt—called by the prophets guilt before God: the decisive step to the personalization of religion and culture. The other was the beginning of autonomous questions-asking in Greek philosophy, the decisive step to the problematization of culture and religion. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

Both elements, culture and religion, were transmitted to the medieval nations by the Church. With them went the anxiety of doubt and meaninglessness. As in later antiquity could have led to a situation in which the courage to be as oneself was necessary. However, the Church gave an antidote against the threat of anxiety and despair, namely itself, its traditions, its sacraments, its education, and its authority. The anxiety of guilt was taken into the courage to be as part of the sacramental community. The anxiety of doubt was taken into the courage to be as a part of the community in which revelation and reason are united. In this way the medieval courage to be was, in spite of its difference from primitive collectivism, the courage to be as a part in the powerful participation of the universal. Some people believed in the self-respect of the individual as self-affirmation as the follower of a feudal lord or a member of guild or as the student in an academic corporation or as a bearer of a special function like that of a craft or a trade or a profession. The tension created by this situation is theoretically expressed in the attack of nominalism on medieval realism and the permanent conflict between them. Nominalism attributes ultimate reality to the individual and would have much earlier than it actually did to a dissolution of the medieval system of participation if the immensely strengthened authority of the Church had not delayed it. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

In religious practice the same tension was expressed in the duality of the sacraments of the mass and of penance. The former mediated the objective power of salvation in which everybody was supposed to participate, if possible by being present at its daily performance. In consequence of this universal participation guilt and grace were felt not only as personal but also as communal. The punishment of the sinner had representative character representative character in such a way that the whole community suffered with one. And the liberation of the sinner from punishment on Earth and in purgatory was partly dependent on the representative holiness of the saints and the love of those who made sacrifices for one’s liberation. Nothing is more characteristic of the medieval system of participation than this mutual representation. The courage to be as a part and to take upon oneself the anxieties of nonbeing is embodied in medieval institutions as it was in primitive forms of life. However, medieval semi collectivism came to an end when the anticollectivist pole, represented by the sacrament of penance, came to the fore. The principle that only contrition, the personal and total acceptance of judgment and grace, can make the objective sacraments effective was impelling toward reduction and even exclusion of the objective element, of representation and participation. “And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of his people,” reports Alma 37.8 #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

In the act of contrition everybody stands alone before God; and it was hard for the Church to mediate this element with the objective one. Finally it proved impossible and the system disintegrated. At the same time the nominalistic tradition became powerful and liberated itself from the heteronomy of the Church. In Reformation and Renaissance the medieval courage to be as apart, its semicollectvist system, came to an end, and developments started which brought the question of the courage to be as oneself to the fore. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. When feelings of anxiety and inferiority surface, we can get at the roots of the problems, not just the symptoms. Hearing and understanding the feelings of those we love makes them feel loved. It helps us as parents adjust our behavior to deal with them more effectively. “And we never took the time to see where we were going. We were only passing by and we never questioned why; the river keeps flowing; the beauty of the ride. If I could all you for a day just to hear the words you would, I would,” Colours by Emma Hewitt. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12