Unpopular Opinion

Yeah "everything psychological is biological" is the first thing they teach you in psychology class. Nothing unpopular about that opinion.

As a neurologist (specialising in post-viral illness) I don’t have the expertise to comment on points 2 and 3 of your post, but point one is completely correct.

Mental illnesses are real. But the construct of “mental illness” isn’t. There is no such thing as an “illness” that is completely psychological in nature, ie. only “caused by thoughts and behaviours”.

I don't think any reputable person believes that mental illness is just "in the mind". Of course there's a physical aspect to it, there's literally a physical aspect to everything about us.

There is no "soul", or some ephemeral "something" that makes us us. Our memories are nothing more than synapses making connections to each other. Our emotions are a series of biochemical and hormonal reactions as a response to stimuli from other people and our environment. There is no part of being human that isn't physiological, including mental illness.

I don't like your opinion because you are oversimplifying.

For example: Where are all the addictions in your view of the world? They can have so many fundamentally different causes.

I almost agree with you.

Any mind-alteration which is produced by unconscious or conscious intent, or even by hypnosis, can be mental-illness.

This includes social-programming.

One of Doidge's books identifies that masochism is when one's mind .. I think in abstract-shapes, so remapping the concept into English, the way I remember it, is going to seem strange..

when one's mind folds such that the portion of one's mind which had been among the pleasure-brain now is among the pleasure-brain AND the pain-brain, so it's getting lit-up by both..

he said the treatment is to get people to notice pleasure that isn't having any pain in it, to try to get their mind to differentiate again..

"folds" ( sorta like crossing one's legs, compromising one's balance, while standing ), is how the abstract-shape feels, in my mind, but he cannot possibly have said it that way..

Also, differentiating between the cause ( the brain-damage of child-onset schizophrenia, e.g. which reduces the person's brain volume by 10% ) vs the effect of that brain-loss, combined with all the social-pressure to behave as though everything were fine ( I experienced this: if kids were helped, instead of bullied & gaslit, then maybe the suicide-rate would be lower than 10% for such lives )

would be better integrity than what we do.

Further, since the placebo-effect and hypnosis both work, provably, then I'd want to use mentally-induced-healing on physical/biological things which yield to it, wherever possible..

( not ignoring it, or blocking awareness of it, but actually dismantling it, like allergies for some people should be dismantlable by hypnotherapy..

a psychiatrist, who happened to be my dad, told me that it was reliable that some people with allergies would have allergic-reactions to entering his office, when he had a picture of a rose visible.

They woudn't consciously notice it, but he did. )

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Some of what you say is true, but what's also true is that for a number of conditions, evidence based talk-therapy can ease or cure psychiatric symptoms. Anxiety disorders, trauma disorders, OCD, and borderline personality disorder, for example, are all treatable with talk therapy, which implies learned behavior may underpin each of them. Depression is more tricky, as there are people who have fallen into learned patterns of behavior, but also people who have serious "brain chemistry" issues

Also I think you misunderstand what gender dysphoria is as far as the DSM is concerned...gender dysphoria is a feeling of stress related to gender expression as it relates to one's society and support system, it's not defining being trans as "mentally ill." Someone who's trans does not have gender dysphoria unless:

The condition is associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

If I read your point 2 correctly, you are saying that some mental illness is just trauma response, and therefore isn't an "illness"?

How is that meaningful different from if I take a pipe and break someone's legs. It's clearly a response to (physical) trauma, and I think that we would all call that an illness, no?

My understanding of schizophrenia, as someone who has it, is that it's a disorder affecting primarily the brain but we understand it very poorly. Even clinically, we're more or less throwing darts at a board when it comes to treating the illness. What we have now works, more or less, but there are new theories emerging to support different potential treatment avenues. I'm really looking forward to seeing where that research goes. In any case, though, given that its primary effects are mental, I think it's safe to call it a "mental illness."

Yes but no. "Mental illness" refers to illnesses in the mind of someone. This doesn't matter what causes it, or it being arbitrary made up.

Despite, #2 ruins your point. It's completely psychological here. It may be caused by a change in environment, but it is entirely psychological. Also, being depressed is a mental illness, no matter what. But that doesn't mean you can't have a good reason to be ill.

Agree with your main points. Some other important factors are genetics and diet. My main quibble is that nearly all health professionals would agree that mental illnesses aren't just mental, so then we have just a phrase taken too literally.