Text: Kendall Pfeffer
Photography: Paul M H Buvarp
This article is the second part of the Mental Health series by Kendall Pfeffer.
Part one: The Present Past: Psychology Redux
A growing understanding of how our brain functions as a social organ and as an organ of adaptation brings us much closer to grasping the bigger picture of human existence from a scientific perspective. Our mental health is not determined or predestined by our genetic makeup in the way we have become accustomed to think. The age old questions of nature v. nurture, genetics v. environmental influences can really be reduced to the dichotomy of brain v. mind. And the answer to these questions lies in our faulty approach. There need not be a black and white, mutually exclusive understanding of the two. The fields of neuroscience and psychology, and their corresponding modes of understanding, need to work in harmony to determine the ecology of human existence. And that is exactly what has begun to occur in the last decade.
In his book The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, Louis Cozolino explains how the separation between brain and mind, and the corresponding dichotomy of neuroscience and psychotherapy, began at the genesis of modern psychology with Freud’s departure from neurology. Until recently, due to the complexity of the human brain, the scientific research within the field of neuroscience was years behind the aims and practices of psychotherapy. Psychologists attempted to delve into the depths of the human subconscious before the science of neurology was capable of explaining their methods and the reasons they were effective. Science stuck to the facts, while psychology opted to reach for the untested potential, to work amidst theory.
Developments within the field of genetics have made “nature” more accessible, more quantifiable, more objective and open to a more succinct, logical explanation, but this does not make it more significant than “nurture”. Nor does it provide an exclusive claim to determination of the course of individual lives. New discoveries in the realm of neuroscience regarding the brain’s plasticity indicate the reciprocal nature of genetics and environmental factors, particularly relationships, and the equally important role of nurture in the determination of life.
The concept of the brain as static or predetermined must be usurped by an understanding of the brain as an organ of adaptation, constructed to facilitate change. While this can mean it is vulnerable to maladaptive growth and disintegration in unhealthy environments, it also means it can learn from new experience and rebuild. The complex neural networks which encode our behavior are not permanently fixed. Our nervous system possesses the ability to change via neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons throughout life, the expansion of existing neurons and changes in neural connections. Much of our genetic makeup consists of transcription genes, which rely on environmental triggers to be expressed. We can foster nurturing environments of change, opportunity and learning to instigate the benefits of neural plasticity. Finally, our brain is also a social organ which responds to and integrates according to our relationships. Each human brain possesses a unique makeup based upon the individual’s history.
It’s what the humanist psychologists suggested half a century ago: the necessity of evolving toward an existential understanding of the human mind. This now incorporates one’s uniquely personal experiences and development in the production of very literal, physical diversity in brain detail. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Rollo May professed, ‘Freedom is man’s capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves’. We now have scientific evidence to support this theory. What is existentially real for an individual need not conflict with what is objectively true. The psychological recovery of one’s mind coincides with a corresponding reconfiguration within the brain.
Despite his notoriety, Freeman did leave us with one very sound piece of advice: the psychiatrist is just a human, “subject to the ills of the flesh, to accidents, to emotional disorders, even too often, to suicide”. I will have failed in these articles if you take my meaning to be that psychiatrists and/or psychologists are untrustworthy and so we should not seek their help. I only want to point out that they are human and the fields of psychology and psychiatry have been constructed by humans, humans who have grown and developed within a specific culture with specific limitations and subjective (the emphasis here on cultural rather than personal subjectivity) beliefs. Not every psychologist is up to the task of this demanding career. Psychiatrists can prescribe inappropriate medications. Patients are misdiagnosed and disorders are misunderstood or falsely designated.
And what could be more important than our mental health? Nothing plays a more vital role in determining the fullness of our lives and the joy we are capable of reaching. What is the value of love, success, family, popularity, wealth or power without a sound mind? If you are unable to connect to anyone or anything in your life, if you are unable to appreciate your successes because you are haunted by anxiety or depression, nothing else can matter. We are complacent about too many things in our life and the world we inhabit. We cannot afford for our mind to be one of those things.
The most significant implication of these discoveries for those suffering with mental illnesses or disorders is that psychotherapy is just as necessary as medicine, an effective part of treatment. Taking medicine without some form of therapeutic treatment is the easy way out, the psychological equivalent of escapism, or possibly denial. The easy way out always has its drawbacks. Medicine without some form of therapy, some form of effort on our part to be more self-aware, to understand and uncover, may very well prevent the symptoms, the anxiety, the depression, the irrational behavior, the uncontrollable thoughts, at least for a while. But medicine will never achieve creative growth, extend our potential, mend the cause of our distorted defense mechanisms or reconfigure the maladaptive neural connections.
Whether it is directed towards proving the effectiveness of psychotherapy generally, cognitive training, meditation or other mindfulness techniques, all the research surrounding the brain’s plasticity seems to indicate one thing. And that one thing is us. The renowned researcher of neuroplasticity, Michael Merzenich, says ‘The most powerful context of the brain is you’. We now posses the background to accept responsibility for our own mental health.
The human brain is the source of emotion and cognition, love and will if you believe in them. It has developed from several millions of years of evolution. It is the pinnacle of life’s architecture; there will be no easy answers to something this complex. But the brain is plastic, subject to change just like life. And we possess the power to improve our mental health. Here we find the freedom which is all too often hidden within our mutable mind. Why not uncover it?
Also read: The Present Past: Psychology Redux
Kendall Pfeffer is American and studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.