Tea at Trianon: Mental Health Disorders

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Mental Health Disorders

Do Americans have more than anyone else? According to the Atlantic:

Over a 12-month period, 27 percent of adults in the U.S. will experience some sort of mental health disorder, making the U.S. the country with the highest prevalence. Mental health disorders include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and substance abuse. Over one’s entire lifetime, the average American has a 47.4 percent chance of having any kind of mental health disorder. Yes, that’s almost one in two. The projected lifetime prevalence is even higher: for people who reach age 75 it is 55 percent. The WHO data does not take into account eating disorders, personality disorders, and schizophrenia; the incidence of these disorders together is about 15 percent in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
(Read entire article.)

Julygirl said...: I have read that this country has more Sociopaths than China, (25% of the pop.), because we raise our children with a sense of entitlement, whereas in China they are trained to consider the common good.; October 18, 2011 at 9:51:00 AM EDT
The North Coast said...: I don't believe Americans have more mental disorders, but only spend more time "picking their belly-button lint" in therapist's offices, and feeling sorry for themselves.

I believe that our enormous sense of entitlement makes us believe that life should be one big, long party and that normal "bad feelings" such as grief, regret, remorse, disappointment, and humiliation are "disorders" that must be "treated". The dominant belief in the psychiatric community seems to be that if you do not feel "up" 100% of the time, that you must have some sort of mental disorder.

This belief sells a lot of psychotropic drugs and explains why most people not only don't improve in therapy, but feel worse and also become less mature and responsible.; October 18, 2011 at 5:21:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I agree!; October 18, 2011 at 5:29:00 PM EDT