Ailments from "nature"

What causes mental disorders and diseases? Let's try to consider this issue. There are several points of view. One of the reasons is human nature.

The Monk Anthony of the Kiev Caves nursed a monk suffering from catatonia (one of the forms of psychosis) for three years, considering his condition to be painful.

St. John of the Ladder cites certain signs by which he advises to distinguish between mood disorders of spiritual origin that arise against the will of monks and the same moods that are not inferior to prayer and the power of the sign of the cross, the development of which depends, as he writes, "on nature"

In his book Orthodox Pastoral Ministry, speaking of psychiatry, Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern) points out that there are states of the soul that are difficult to define in the categories of moral theology and that are not included in the concepts of good and evil. These states, in the author's opinion, do not belong to the ascetic field, but to the psychopathological one, and develop from human nature.

The Venerable Confessor, the Old Archimandrite George (Lavrov), who at one time asceticized in the Danilov Monastery, very clearly distinguished mental illnesses. To some he said: "You, child, go to the doctor," and to others, "You have nothing to do with doctors." There were cases when the elder, having established a spiritual life, recommended going to a psychiatrist or, on the contrary, took people from a psychiatrist to him for spiritual nourishment.

Summing up some of the above, it can be assumed that mental illnesses can be, on this plane of comparison, comparable to bodily illnesses, and that both, by God's permission, are sent to man in order to assist in the matter of salvation. In this case, the spiritual illness is a cross laid down by the Lord.

Scientific medical data also speak about natural, individual biological factors in the occurrence of mental pathology. For example: the occurrence of psychopathological symptoms against the background of somatic or neurological pathology, the appearance of mental disorders under the influence of various harmful factors (poisoning with neurotropic poisons, microwave field, strong noise, work in the dark, etc.).

The thesis is also confirmed by the fact that psychopathological manifestations are often and successfully cured by medications. It is also worth mentioning that genetic studies have been carried out on the subject of predisposition to mental illness and certain patterns have been revealed.

It is clear that the flesh of man cannot be sick in isolation from the rest of his nature. Any illness, be it psychopathology, diseases of the stomach, bones or eyes, also has a spiritual nature, for all diseases of mankind are a consequence of the Fall. That is, when we say that this or that disease is natural, it means that psychopathological or somatic symptoms are more clearly and visibly manifested in its nature. In this regard, I would like to give an example.

It is known that schizophrenia is characterized by a kind of splitting of mental activity. But people who consider themselves healthy also have this duality. The Holy Apostle Paul wrote about such a "duality" of fallen man: "I do not understand what I am doing: for I do not what I want, but what I hate, I do. But if I do what I do not want, then I agree with the law that it is good, and therefore it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the desire for good is in me, but I do not find it to do it. I do not do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I do not want. But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (Romans 7:1520).