Hope In Mental Illness

 

http://www.ush.utah.gov/dvd_philosophy_of_treatment.html

 

I love this video. I love how it ends with a person swinging on a rope, as a symbol of freedom from mental illness. I love how the narrator describes the understanding of the patient, from multiple points of view, critical to the therapeutic value that the hospital offers patients. I appreciate the philosophy as one which embraces complexity, as opposed to reducing mental illness into a cookbook of treatments. I stumbled upon it because I am reading another George Vaillant MD article to prepare for being a discussant this Friday. He mentioned that their philosophy was a model of treatment for sociopaths, as it contains them, while at the same time, allowing individuals to work together to change-up their aggression for productivity. I am not personally familiar with the care at Utah State Hospital, but if they do what they say they do, I am impressed.