Notre Dame Graduate Institute

1
Notre Dame Graduate Institute

• Theology Psychology
• Final Review
• Causes of Mental Illness

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Exterior causes

• All things that effect the senses
• Nature
• Technology
• Human relations

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Proper Judgment calms fear

• Judge rightly
• Proper image now in memory
• Cogitative power is trained to associate properly
  passions are trained
• Repetition brings good habits
• Aid in future
• Able to approach objects in nature in healthy
  fashion
• If intellect will function correctly these lead
  to mental health

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Parents

• Learned from parents
• Intellectual an moral formation
• Stability of relationship
• Health or illness of parents often to child-
• Resemblance
• Environment
• Proper punishment required
• Parents must follow natural law
• Divorce its impact
• Divided
• insecure

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Physiological 3-Fold Consideration

• Actions of agent
• Chemical imbalance or neurological problem result
  of actions
• Strictly chemical no basis in volitional acts
• Source physiological cause only but can be
  corrected through elicited acts

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Interior Senses

• Common Sense Power
• Unless there is a dysfunction of this faculty can
  lead to mental illness
• If there isnt then it can provide the sense date
  accurately
• Memory
• It can disorder the passions if it is remembered
  falsely or associate it with something it should
  not be associated with
• Imagination
• If one imagines the wrong things or things
  contrary to human nature, it can lead easily to
  physiological defects
• Cogitative power
• Wrong associations disorders appetites causes
  fixation

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Memory

• Recalls images into imagination
• Strong memory (trauma) can recall the experience
  repeatedly
• disturbs the various faculties.
• Constant recall of specific memory leads to
  disorder to cogitative power
• cogitative power assesses the species falsely or
  wrongly associates it with another species
• False memories or unusually strong memories
• disorder passions.

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Healing

• Possible intellects judgment wills
  dissociation in the memory of the thing causing
  trouble
• cogitative power moved.
• Flushing out past memory or discussing it
• also experiencing the thing causing problem in a
  positive way.

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Imagination

• Maintains the presence of the phantasm in the
  passive intellect allows the combination of
  previous sense experience with the present
  phantasm.

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Pivotal Faculty

• If one imagines wrong things or contrary to human
  nature, it can easily lead to physiological
  defects
• Requires great deal of training control

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Disordered imagination

• Improper judgment of Possible intellect
• disconnection from reality.
• Can cause disorder
• in appetites
• cogitative power
• Judgment
• will
• With physiological defect
• Can use external senses to bring imagination
  under control.
• If uncontrollable, it is up to psychologist to
  bring under control

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Control of the image

• How the possible intellect will control the
  image in the imagination is crucial for mental
  health.
• Bad habits in cogitative power (Fixation)
• reformulation

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Reformulation

• Reformulating the image by means of the possible
  intellect will means that mental health is
  often under the volitional control of the
  individual.
• One can disorder interior senses by choices
• Converse is true

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Bring the imagination under control of right
reason.

• Good mental health using imagination for images
• In congruity with natural law
• Truth
• Of the good.
• This leads to mental health

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Imagination holds truth

• Provides true sensible species so that the
  possible intellect can perform its functions
  the will can move guide the whole of man.

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Healing through reformulation

• Sorting out reformulating the images is a
  powerful form of correction of the lower
  faculties can be used to gain per se mental
  health. p. 283

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Cogitative Power

• The power of association
• Composition division
• Assesses harmfulness, goodness or usefulness of
  some thing
• Prepares the phantasm for abstraction
• Only proper to man
• Habituation in wrong way leads to mental illness

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Fixation

• Cogitative power wrongly associates one thing
  with another is unable to change the
  association.
• Disordered appetite will lead to fixation.
• Habituated appetite often leads to habituation of
  appetites, possible intellect, will.

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Correction of Fixation

• Train the cogitative power to associate properly
  using proper data to reformulate image
• Also possible intellect will can gain indirect
  control of cogitative power by changing phantasm
  of the imagination.

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Proper objects lead to virtue

• Proper objects come into the imagination which
  can lead to virtue in appetites.
• When an appetite has a passion which is at
  Variance with right reason, reason provides a
  rational image which causes the appetite to cease
  its disordered passion.
• Disordered passion can also be corrected by
  causing a change in phantasm that results in the
  movement of a different passion.
• Ex. Move the concupiscible appetite to desire
  some other good.
• Also distraction with some other thing.

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Virtue is the good of the intellect

• Virtue strengthens the intellect
• vice weakens it
• the virtue or strength in the intellect can be
  learned or transferred to other areas
• by means of judgment or association.
• Particularly prudence

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Truth is the good of the intellect

• Knowing the truth aids mental health
• As one seeks to conform ones intellect to
  reality intellect is perfected
• Can heal mental illness in 2 ways
• The good can counter mental illness which is evil
  for intellect
• Knowing the truth, that which causes mental
  illness is dissipated1

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Life of appetites takes us out of reality

• One wants what the appetites want not what the
  intellect knows as true
• Intellect know reality not the appetites
• Following appetite is not following judgment of
  possible intellect
• Disorder is based on falsity
• Under the sway of passions appetites judge
  something to be good or done when in fact it may
  not be good.
• Appetites draw the intellect away from judging
  rightly about reality
• if will desires the object of the appetite, it
  may actually move the intellect to ignore reality.

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Truth/rectitude of intellect falsity/deformation

• Truth is rectitude of the intellect, falsity is
  the deformation
• Falsity can lead to mental illness
• If person does not have sufficient virtue to
  counter the falsity the person may be prone to
  mental illness with respect to that object

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Truth conformity of intellect to reality

• Seeking the truth about the object of ones
  mental illness can actually lead to mental health
• First step to mental health is recognizing that
  one must not have the truth about it (the object)
  otherwise he would not be so disturbed in the
  soul in the face of it.
• Humility is first step

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Conclusions

• We must learn to conform ourselves to reality
  not expect reality to conform to us
• Pursuit of truth means that true knowledge is the
  good of the intellect that sometimes mental
  illness can be corrected through knowledge.
• Requires choice of the will
• To more person to pursue truth
• To conform to truth

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Misunderstanding mental illness

• Mental illness can come from simply not
  understanding something properly.
• Once person discovers the truth he can correct
  the cogitative power by formulating the phantasm
• Intellectual formation is so important
• Bad formation debilitates one in maintaining
  mental health
• Correction in two ways
• Through knowledge of the nature of man
  (metaphysics)
• E.G. One believes self to be evil
  undesirable-know the nature of the good, they
  have the good of nature
• From there, how to pursue the good through virtue
  good actions (moral theology)
• Psychologist can help directee conform his
  intellect to the truth.

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Judgment affects mental health

• Mental health illness are affected by acts of
  judgment
• Mental illness is the lack of judgment
• If directed to make the right judgment about the
  object one can regain his use of reason with
  respect to the object.
• I.E. Judgment can be used to overcome per se
  mental illness.
• Sometimes directly-confrontation
• Sometimes indirectly
• It corrects the other faculties.

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Correct Mental Illness per se

• One can correct mental illness per accidens if
  there is not a physiological cause.
• Discuss things that are connected to false
  judgment presenting the truth in a convincing
  manner
• As he gives assent to things that are connected,
  he can syllogistically or through induction, be
  led conclusively to the truth which contradicts
  his judgment.
• First principles are innate
• If lucid, they are operative
• They must be found by the psychologist then lead
  directee slowly to the eradication of falsity by
  means of showing that his position is
  contradictory.

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Pursuit of science aids health

• Pursuit of scientific endeavors can lead to
  mental health.
• Depression can be cured through pursuit of
  (abstract) knowledge
• Exceedingly intelligent may have difficulty
• Some truth is ugly painful
• May judge wrongly
• May give into sorrow
• More intelligent-more able to grasp evil be
  affected (who told you . . .)
• Encourage virtue in other faculties to aid
  intellect in difficult moments
• Fortitude
• Humility
• Ensure one follows the truth does what is right
  (prudence)

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Error is first cause of all mental illness

• Error is the first cause of all mental illness of
  those who act voluntarily
• Reasoning can restore proper order of the lower
  faculties
• E.G. Reasons thing causing anger is not worth
  emotional energy
• E.G. Reasoning the association of the cogitative
  power or judgment of possible intellect was not
  correct.
• Person leads lower faculties through reasoning
  process

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First Principles aid Mental Health

• First principles can be taught so one can use
  them in reasoning process.
• Great aid for mental health

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Teaching person logic

• A great aid for mental health
• Powerful tool since logic is art of right
  reasoning.
• The art according to nature.
• Since natural law governs intellect this is why
  choosing contrary to natural law can cause so
  many disorders.

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Perfect Freedom

• Intellect freely judging the truth not being
  bound or encumbered in any way the will moving
  from its own interior principle.
• A perfection of man
• Goal of psychology

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One chooses evil

• Will moves intellect to reformulate the image so
  it can make a false judgment about the thing.
• To say it is good so it can will it

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Disordered will causes mental illness

• Can cause possible intellect to perform acts
  contrary to its nature
• E.g. infidelity

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Many mental illness are voluntary

• Implicitly
• Will moves other faculties to perform actions
  which lead to mental illness
• By omission, does not perform actions which lead
  to mental health
• Explicitly
• Chooses to make self mentally ill
• Historically rare

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Perfection of will

• Will must choose the good of the other faculties
  for its own sake
• Will must choose the good as an inherent
  perfection of itself
• Natural law demands willing good of another

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Unloving or selfish

• Mentally ill tend
• Unloving
• Selfish, self centered
• Incongruous with natural law
• Help seek perfect love
• For true good of self
• To love people for their own benefit

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Corporal works of mercy

• Encourage person to love others to perform acts
  for their benefits.
• Can correct judgment about people
• Bring judgment intellect in incongruity with
  natural law

41
Authentic love for self

• Helped not to command actions which cause bad
  passions vice
• Aids overcoming vice develops virtue
• Helps him not command what is false
• False images, memories associations in
  cogitative power will not occur

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Love your neighbor as yourself

• Attention on good things outside of himself
• Truth is built as he conforms to reality
• Passions will be subdued because they see true
  good
• Imagination, memory cogitative power can be
  cured