Will science explain mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder (or manic depression) and schizophrenia? The issue was debated by Peter McGuffin, director of the social, genetic and developmental psychiatry centre at King's College, London, and Steven Rose, director of the brain and behaviour research group at the Open University (Prospect, October 2005). McGuffin believes that molecular genetics and understanding of the brain structure and activity hold the key to mental disorders. Since many psychiatric disorders are thought to be a blend of heredity and social "stressors," present genetic studies help in identifying those genes. Further, a better understanding of neuropsychology and neurobiology may not only help us treat better but also provide a deeper knowledge of causes—reducing the fear and mystery surrounding mental illness.

As against this, Steven Rose observes that assuming for every psychic state a corresponding brain state, so that the brain processes of a mentally ill person would differ from a "normal" person, may alleviate the symptoms by manipulating brain chemistry. But could this "explain" the mental illness? He argues:

The fact that a drug such as Prozac, which affects serotonin reuptake, will alleviate the depression in many patients, is sometimes taken to mean that the depression is caused by a deficit in serotonin metabolism. Yet the flaw in the logic of such an argument is clear; aspirin alleviates the pain of toothache, but we do not conclude that the cause of the toothache is too little aspirin in the brain. So where do the determining causes lie?

Though biochemical and genetic factors help to explain why one person becomes depressed in a given set of circumstances while another does not, it is not likely that in most cases the major determinant is biochemical. Rose observes that in the passage of time one biomarker (biochemical cause) of a mental disorder has been replaced by another and so also one "scientific method" has been succeeded by a new one. Just as Freudian methods and conclusions are being replaced by new conclusions, so also in a hundred years from now—or sooner—today's attempts to locate causes in terms of genes will seem similarly misguided. Rose writes:

I am still not sure whether you would want to argue that, once you have catalogued all your genes of small effect, you would say you have "explained" the "causes" of schizophrenia. The phenotypic effect of any one of your genes will be probabilistic....It may be that your techniques will point to new drug prospects, but I fear that "explanation" will still elude simple reductionism.

What is the cause of most physical and mental disorders? Mr. Judge answers this question in the article, "Replanting Diseases for Future Use":

Mind is the container of the efficient causes of our circumstances, our inherent character and the seeds that sprout again and again as physical diseases as well as those purely mental. It is the mover who is either voluntary in his motion, free if it will, or moved hither and thither by every object and influence and coloured by every idea. From life to life it occupies body after body, using a new brain instrument in each incarnation. As Patanjali put it ages ago, in mind lie planted all seeds with self-reproductive power inherent in them, only waiting for time and circumstances to sprout again. Here are the causes for our diseases.

We need to have right thinking, right ideas and the will to put them into practice. "Those who break Nature's laws lose their physical health; those who break the laws of the inner life, lose their psychic health," says Light on the Path. The same mystical book mentions the need to learn to keep the mental poise. If grief, dismay, disappointment or pleasure can shake the soul (mind) to such an extent that it loses its hold on the calm spirit, then all is blurred, the divine is no longer able to guide and help us.

Patanjali mentions certain positive attitudes, such as benevolence, tenderness and complacency, that help in purifying the mind, and Mr. Judge adds a note that the practice of these "brings about cheerfulness of the mind, which tends to strength and steadiness."

Some of the causes of the diseases are carried forward from earlier lives. Thus, transmission of physical traits and mental peculiarities by means of parent and body (i.e., heredity) is exactly the mode selected by nature for providing the Ego with the proper body through which to carry on its work. It is the Karma of previous lives which "governs the station in life, sex, the conditions of the irresponsible years of childhood, the constitution with the various diseases inherent in it, and in fact all those determining forces of physical existence which are ordinarily classed under the terms, 'heredity' and 'national characteristics.'" (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 6) --

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