Who says we're mad?

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Here we go again! Half the Jamaican population is suffering from a mental illness according to our erstwhile, well-educated psychiatrists. They further suggest that the way to treat this condition is to hire an army of well-trained mental-health therapists to begin to treat this malady!

The first thing someone should ask is: Is the diagnosis correct?

If you say yes, then we either have a pandemic, which we have not identified, or this is a genetic malfunction! In either case, psychiatry alone would not be an option for proper treatment.

I submit that once again our intellectuals have, in my humble opinion, fallen short, and may even be numbered among half the population with the disorder to a disproportionate degree! The diagnosis fits neatly into what the psychiatrists were taught in their fancy books, so it had to be a mental disorder, but to leave it at that and say we have to treat it and not find the root cause is like trying to fill a sieve with water.

Herd mentality

The cause of our boorish and murderous behaviour is a cultural one. People, psychiatrists have noted, have a herd mentality - they tend to want leaders to follow. During the 'wicked colonial times', boorish behaviour was kept in check because there was a culture of civility, and any aberrant behaviour would stick out like a sore thumb. With Independence, a lot of the people who set the tone migrated, followed by the disastrous experiment of Michael Manley's government with an even greater number leaving. Coupled with that came the 'opening of eyes' which he performed, which was interpreted by many to mean there was no longer any need to respect anyone, or even self. So what has really happened is a disruption of our culture, with people not having the benefit of guidance from home and the society at large, not providing a suitable herd environment to counter the lack of acceptable behavioural influences at home. The age group of the people found with this disorder is instructive to those who have eyes to see.

No army of specially trained psychiatrists is going to be able to solve this problem as they do not see the problem for what it is. And no, we are not Captain Morgan's descendants! We have migrated towards the jungle, the truth is staring us in the face, and that is what we ignore at our peril.

I am, etc.,

CARLTON REYNOLDS

carlton.rennie.reynolds@gmail.com