"New" Treatments for Depression

 

With the collapse of popular trust in the SSRI antidepressants, Dr. John Campbell, who has himself suffered from the black dog, reviews the recent literature suggesting that small doses of hallucinogenic drugs like psilocybin may be an effective treatment.

This should be no surprise. But it has nothing to do with chemical interactions or the lack of certain chemicals in the brain. It has to do with consciousness.

Depression and chronic anxiety are caused by having been indoctrinated with a false world view and false self-image. In the natural course, this is most likely to have been by a malicious or narcissistic parent. It can also afflict an entire society. This is why mental illness is increasing rapidly in our own.

More directly, depression, which is really to say, a sense of meaninglessness, and chronic, omnidirectional anxiety, is caused by a dissonance between the world view and one’s own sense experience, conscience, and common sense. This is deeply disorienting.

Second premise: what we call the imagination is an organ of perception that reveals, if only in small part, the world of universals, of ideal forms as defined by Plato. That is, what we perceive through imagination is not random or “made up,” but universal truths. Jung called them “archetypes.” But he falsely thought they represented something else, something physical. They are simply the real world.

Therefore, the proper and necessary cure for the distorted world view that causes depression and anxiety is the exercise of the imagination. This can and ideally will restore a sound basis to our thought.

Shakespeare, great psychologist that he was, presented this as a “green world” in which his characters’ problems, generally caused by an error in self-image, were resolved.

Traditionally, this reorientation or reprogramming is done through the arts, through prayer, and through meditation, “mindfulness.” Pagan societies might treat mental illness with a masked dance. It has also long been noted that mental distress can be soothed by travel, by “getting away from it all.” As a result, “ships of fools” reputedly used to sail constantly up and down the Rhine.

All these are ways to develop the imagination and open channels to the eternal world.

This also happens spontaneously through psychosis. Rather than a disease, psychosis, like a fever, is a healthy corrective response to some critical bit of false programming. Tragically, we no longer let it run its course, making mental illness incurable.

The same effect can also be stimulated artificially by psychotropics. We have known this well enough since the 60s. They can force open the inner eye. People often claim to “see God,” and so forth.

Therefore they can cure depression.

The problem is that psychotropics are undirected. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy. There are demons and new darknesses as well as fairies and rainbows. Using psychotropics is like letting psychosis run its course. Most often, it will cure; but some will only get more deeply trapped. Just as some psychotics stay psychotic indefinitely.

One needs a spiritual guide, who will reliably direct towards the light.

Some materialist in a white coat has no idea how or where to spiritually guide.



The best treatment for depression and anxiety remains the best of the arts, meditation, and prayer. For these are guided, tested and reliable. Small doses of psilocybin or other chemical substances might assist in this process.