Mental Health, Wellness, and Deification: Beyond Disorders & Towards Rediscovery of God's Vision for Man
Mena Mirhom, MD, Psychiatry Resident, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, Mount Sinai Health System
"The glory of God is a human being fully alive." These words by St. Iraneus reflect an entirely different paradigm than modern psychiatry often does. The early Christian understanding of "well-being" or "fully alive" was never reduced to the decrease or management of pathologic symptoms. There was always something deeper. As psychiatry progresses further into our interest in wellness as a profession, we may benefit from looking back to go forward. The Christian scriptures describe a "partaking of the divine nature" that is foundational to the life of the Christian and is the bedrock of the true life of wellness. Another early writer describes this through the work of Christ, in which "He took what is ours, and gave us what is His." What He has given us, is not only forgiveness, but the potential for full participation in the divine life. This is attainable by the Grace of God, and shifts the direction of how we understand mental and emotional health. In this paper we will discuss the meaning of this early Christian teaching and it's implication on how we provide mental health care. The practical illustration of this teaching is a free mental health center that I had the opportunity to help start. It is based in a church and directed by a veteran psychiatrist who is also a Coptic Orthodox priest.
"The glory of God is a human being fully alive." These words by St. Iraneus reflect an entirely different paradigm than modern psychiatry often does. The early Christian understanding of "well-being" or "fully alive" was never reduced to the decrease or management of pathologic symptoms. There was always something deeper. As psychiatry progresses further into our interest in wellness as a profession, we may benefit from looking back to go forward. The Christian scriptures describe a "partaking of the divine nature" that is foundational to the life of the Christian and is the bedrock of the true life of wellness. Another early writer describes this through the work of Christ, in which "He took what is ours, and gave us what is His." What He has given us, is not only forgiveness, but the potential for full participation in the divine life. This is attainable by the Grace of God, and shifts the direction of how we understand mental and emotional health. In this paper we will discuss the meaning of this early Christian teaching and it's implication on how we provide mental health care. The practical illustration of this teaching is a free mental health center that I had the opportunity to help start. It is based in a church and directed by a veteran psychiatrist who is also a Coptic Orthodox priest.