Actually, perhaps I do have a problem with the term 'mental illness' if this is what it is supposed to imply, although I don't think it necessarily does. Better to stick to terms that Dinesh et al tend not to like, such as 'mental health problems', which don't have this ideological implication.
I think Dinesh et al are right that mental illness does imply a major or more serious rather than minor mental health problem. Before the 2007 revision, the Mental Health Act (MHA) used the term 'mental illness', although it was never defined. This has now been replaced by the more generic term 'mental disorder'. In principle, people should only be detained under the MHA for mental health problems of a nature or degree that warrant this intervention and psychiatrists would have generally understood the term mental illness to mean functional psychosis. And, as I've said several times before (eg. see previous post), there may be potential advantages in seeing mental health problems as illness as it integrates the medical perspective. Illness can be mental and not purely physical. The problem with Dinesh at al's view is that they may appear to regard mental illness as physical in origin.
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A more fundamental problem is the lack of a definition for the mind.
It does imply that Duncan. They also seems to say "mental distress" does not convey the "distress" involved. Pardon?
I agree, Diana, that it tends to imply that. Perhaps I'm trying to reclaim the term 'mental illness' for what it really means, not what Dinesh and Kam say.
Maybe we should use the term "Psychiatric Disorder" (Psychiatrische Störung).
Dr. med. Hans Bangen
As the mind is an epiphenomenon of the brain, and the brain exists inside the body, and people have a complex relationship with their environment and other people, it has always seemed erroneous to me to try to pin mental health issues down to any one of these factors.
I had seasonal affective disorder caused by a severe lack of daylight (I only get it if I'm completely deprived of daylight all day) and the resulting symptoms were anxiety and depression. However there were no other environmental factors or underlying issues; it felt to me like the whole thing was down to brain chemistry. On other occasions when I've been depressed, it has been emotional and environmental issues. However, these affect brain chemistry.
That's why I think a range of approaches are needed.
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