The Apostle Paul wrote, “To them [His saints] God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).
The Apostle Paul believed that THE Hope of Human History is Christ in you. The greatest hope, the hope that casts out all fears, the hope that destroys all doubt, the hope that allows one to live above circumstance, the hope that compels one to please God even when sinned against is… Christ in you.
Jesus Christ is THE HOPE!
The psychological paradigm is, well, less hopeful. Listen carefully to the words of America’s top psychiatrist, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Thomas Insel, in regards to the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual)…
“While DSM has been described as a ‘Bible’ for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each. The strength of each of the editions of DSM has been ‘reliability’ – each edition has ensured that clinicians use the same terms in the same ways. The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure. In the rest of medicine, this would be equivalent to creating diagnostic systems based on the nature of chest pain or the quality of fever. Indeed, symptom-based diagnosis, once common in other areas of medicine, has been largely replaced in the past half century as we have understood that symptoms alone rarely indicate the best choice of treatment” (see article by Thomas Herper in Forbes, “Why Psychiatry’s Seismic Shift Will Happen Slowly”).
Two thoughts literally scream for scrutiny:
- “the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure,” and
- “symptoms alone rarely indicate the best choice of treatment.”
Okay, in layman terms…
- We are little better than guessing at what is really wrong with people, and
- When we guess we rarely give helpful answers
Yikes!
How many people do you know that believe, some beyond a shadow of doubt, that their “diagnosis” of some mental disorder was found through a blood test? Far too many, I would imagine. Beloved, THERE IS NO OBJECTIVE TEST. Secondly, when the “diagnosis” is made through subjective means (e.g., surveying the patient), the solution is often flawed. Beloved, THE SOLUTIONS RARELY WORK. What hope is there in that? Indeed, what business could ever survive such chicanery? Let’s see if we have this straight:
- Someone goes to a psychologist/psychiatrist for some “mental problem.”
- The person is asked some questions…and based upon the subjective answers is…wait for it
- Prescribed a solution that rarely works!
Yikes!
There is no hope in that. Now, I know most of us really do not want to solve our problems—we would rather simply “feel” better while making mud pies in the slums (see C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”). Nevertheless, there is no real hope in sugar-coating THE problem.
To be sure, psychiatry is undaunted. They are determined. They have bought into the slogan of Dow Chemicals, “Chemistry, the hope of human history.” Because symptom (subjective) based diagnoses do not work, psychiatry is trying to move to “more objective” measures. Herper continues, “As a result of this, he [Insel] wrote, the NIMH ‘will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories.’ Instead, it would be encouraging medical researchers to frame their studies using a still nascent classification system being developed by the NIMH, called the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC).”
Psychiatry is going the way of the world. If the last century was the century of nurture (my parents’ parenting is to blame for my problems), this century intends to be the century of nature (my biochemistry is to blame for my problems) …and conveniently enough Dow Chemicals offers hope through better chemistry. The catch, however (you knew there was a catch…right?), is that it will take at least ten years before any solutions are found, “It’s going to take a decade or more for results to bear fruit” (Bruce Cuthbert).
Okay so let’s see if we have this straight again…
- Symptom based diagnoses do not work (this fact, of course will not stop the industry, however)
- Biological based diagnoses are believed will someday work (just like they though symptom based would)
- It will take at least ten years before we begin to have real solutions (which will prove to be not real solutions…bank on it)
Nevertheless, Dow Chemicals will make billions of off people who hope in chemistry
OR…one could turn to the only true source of hope
Jesus Christ IS THE HOPE OF GLORY.
Where will you turn the next time life goes sideways for you?
10,000 Blessings in The Hope of Glory,
Jim