I was clinically depressed, which meant that I could not will my way out of it, pray my way out of it, or pull myself up by the bootstraps out of it. I really needed a medication and a form of treatment, which included therapy, and that worked for me. In large part, Mrs. Gore owes the success of her treatment to recent breakthroughs in scientific research into the causes of mental illness. The last decade has been a time of almost unbelievable progress. Dr. Steven Hyman is director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
Hyman cites the example of autism, a brain disorder that affects about two in one thousand people.
It produces a wide range of symptoms including rocking and an inability to form emotional bonds. The mother of an autistic child was told that the reason the child was ill was because of her unconscious wishes. Now, what mother of an autistic child might not at some time in their life have the fantasy, maybe it would have been better had Johnny not been born. Well, the upshot, of course, was not of any treatment benefit, but what it did do is alienate and demoralize and blame families. The flowering of brain science.