*Most mental illness is not organic at all; it's a social disease*

Squeers, I would say that you are purely guessing on that one.
Throughout history, humans have learned to cope with stress and
trauma, far worse then they deal with today. In fact in relative
terms, our society is quite mollycoddled.

I'm certainly no expert in the field, but in the cases that I
know of, some of them close friends, a family history of suffering
from depression, was extremely common.

It makes evolutionary sense too. Our neural chemistry is massively
affected by our genes and to try and fob most of it off on
society, (perhaps because it might also suit your ideological
claims) is highly flawed, IMHO.

While we have people, we will have people who glorify death and the dark side. A change of heart is the beginning to an abundant life. The battle for the heart and mind of men and women has been from the beginning. The positive and negitave sides are very real and only a fool chooses to ignore this. A fool is one who has said in his heart "There is no God", then trys to explain everything in the light of that opinion. Jesus came to save bringing grace and truth. When he returns the season of grace is over and judgment comes. Seek the truth boldly while grace is available for no one knows the Hour or the day when the door closes. Look to posipilities and do not gamble with the future for the cards are always stacked against. Pilots who chose to ignore instruction are usually unsuccessful so why ignore such a great help, "the instruction manual" in favor of pride. People perish from lack of knowledge. It is a personal choice. For all who blame God for all the bad please remember it is a personal choice whether we serve the God of possible, or the god of impossible.
lets

Searching:
<please, do not discount the "depressed" person as feining mental illness>
Dear Searching, did I say that? No. And I am sympathetic.
According to Robert Burton's "The Anatomy of Melancholy", activity is the best cure (the Devil makes work for idle hands), but these days it perhaps only defers the malady since there is no "genuine" activity.

Dear Yabby,
I'm not guessing, it's a (not unprecedented) hypothesis I'm interested in, associated with cultural alienation and the notion of "morbid rationalism"; an existential "disease" or rationality sui generis, vested in a culture without cogent values. Thus I'm not talking mass psychosis or "crowd psychology", but the loss of self implied by the ersatz, fetishising-self constructed within consumer culture. The idea rests on the notion of not merely thwarted, but egocentric reification and concomitant exploitation of the essential, or potential, self.
In our culture of reified abstractions--wherein abides the garish self amid its material props--a sense of disequilibrium, or unreality, naturally entails. People often perceive the fraudulence of their glitzy culture and shallow lives, but see no alternative so try to take it seriously. Some succeed, most don't, at least not all the time (remember, 20% suffer a mental "illness" IN ANY ONE YEAR). Some people use religion to compensate (a fantastic alternative reality that, if you can swallow it, compensates and maintains a semblance of mental health), some use drugs, some fall by the wayside, and some rebel (yep, that's me).
It is the context within which mental illness is treated that should be studied. A healthy culture develops naturally and institutionally reflects the psychological needs of its denizens. Ours is a patronising and exploitative culture at once.

Yabby:
<a family history of suffering
from depression, [is] extremely common>
Family histories of religious devotion are also extremely common, but that doesn't mean it's genetic.

OMG squeers, you have just sent me into a depressive state trying to understand what you have written. As I am not an academic or a prolific reader, it took me a while (along with a dictionary[my constant companion]) to understand what you wrote. Or at least I think I understand.

I could not find "sui genuris" only sui juris - I am assuming this is the same thing?

Living is so complicated at times.

Richie 10 - I was once "born again" and perhaps this saw me thru the teenage years, but as I aged it also became a burdon - I found that a belief that God would sustain me became a burdon in itself. Actually, now that I have dispensed with that side of life, I am seeing life in a different "light".

Even tho society has changed, perhaps relatively speaking it is no different to when I was a teenager. I think each generation finds its own level.

It is up to the "elders" to be the guides - to listen to them, not condemn them - to be there when they falter or fall - to accept them for who they are.

Quote: Montaigne " I gladly come back to the absurdity of our education; its end has not been to make us good and wise, but learned. And it has succeeded. It has not taught us to seek virtue and to embrace wisdom; it has impressed upon us their derivation and their etymology...
We readily inquire, 'Does he know Greek or Latin?' 'Can he write poetry and prose:' But what matters most is what we put last; 'Has he become better and wiser?' We ought to find out not who understands most but who understands best. We work merely to fill the memory, leaving the understanding and the sense of right and wrong empty."

Dear Squeers,

Fair enough, as I thought, you are simply guessing.

I think you will find that if you do a google search on
the genetic depression link, there is a bit of evidence
around.

*Family histories of religious devotion are also extremely common, but that doesn't mean it's genetic.*

No it doesen't, but personally I think that in time it will be
shown that certain people are more inclined to religious
indoctrination, based on their neural wiring. Religion does
help people quell anxiety, homeostasis is part of it.
People seek perceived certainty, fair enough

But you are comparing apples and oranges here. Neural function is
organic, based on genetic input. Flawed neural function is common
in nature.

Not so with religion. The brain can function quite well without
it. Its based on learned behaviour.

I feel quite strongly about this, and it is why I home educate my son.
Although he is mildly autistic, he is also extremely capable. He is prone to be more anxious because of his perceptions and sensory issues. There are many children like him in the school system - some diagnosed, many not. These children are the ones that are a "little" different, the one's that struggle and the ones that are targeted by other children.
My son knows very little of the pressure to conform within a faceless institution. He is allowed the luxury of taking his mornings slowly, of wearing the clothes of his choice, of developing his academic skills through the things that interest him, and of socialising within groups that share some commonality with him.
He interacts on a daily basis with all age groups - from the pensioner on the bus to the lady in the post office to the toddler at the park. In short, his day unfolds in a generally relaxed and natural manner.

We seem in our society to want to pressure our children to extremes - to whip them into shape to take their place amongst the hordes of consumers. Somewhere along this road we have forgotten to allow them to seek their skills through their own foresight and interest - to guide them, but not to dictate the "absolute" content of their learning.They are like a bonsai plant - nipped and budded at every turn. In our society we provide a very shallow and restricted base from which to flourish.

Searching - I liked the Montaigne quote