ABSTRACT
The religious character of the belief in mental illness manifests itself in another way as well. Religion is, among other things, the institutionalized denial of the human foundations of meaning and of the inevitable finiteness of life; the person who seeks transcendental meaning and rejects the reality of death can thus theologize life and entrust its management to clerical professionals. If mental illnesses are diseases of the central nervous system, then they are diseases of the brain, not the mind. And if mental illnesses are the names of misbehaviours, then they are behaviours, not diseases. Indeed, Sigmund Freud himself flirted with such a formulation, but backed away from its implications, preferring instead to believe that "neuroses" are literal diseases, and that "psychoanalysis" is a literal treatment. In his essay "Psychical Treatment," Freud wrote: Foremost among such measures is the use of words; and words are the essential tool of mental treatment.
