Mental Health and Christian Hope
Back in April, a Psychology Today article noted how some people today, especially younger people, are finding identity in their psychological struggles. For those who do, the point is not overcoming their struggles or achieving personal growth. Rather, it’s about belonging. As the writer put it:
We are living in an age where psychological explanations are prioritized above all others. Indeed, therapy speak has permeated everyday life. It has taken over conversations and relationships, leading people to claim boundary violations, accuse others of gaslighting, or see narcissists everywhere they go.
Between the rise of a hyper-therapeutic culture and the critical theory mood, a quick way to achieve social status is to have a condition, preferably one that can’t be challenged. There are, of course, real, pressing psychological issues facing many, especially in the rising generation. While such people deserve to be taken seriously, as Abigail Shrier observed in her book Bad Therapy, the mental health industry incentivizes mental health struggle. It has normalized the need to therapize even basic childhood tasks—like making friends. The result has not been better health, only greater dependency.
The cultural drift to valorize victimhood and medicate most behavior is not providing a generation with hope. In fact, it’s the opposite. Despite greater mental health awareness and increased access to care than at any other time in human history, rates of suicide and psychological distress are up while rates of healing are down.
We ought not be surprised when young people believe what they are told: that they are victims and that the world has no ultimate meaning, so they must make up their own reality to be their “true, authentic” selves. Essentially, we’ve placed the weight of making the world on their shoulders and are surprised when they stumble under the weight of the task. Kids are told to “live their truth,” “be themselves” and “follow their heart.” In school, they learn that the entire cosmos is one big accident. From social media, they learn that they can’t stack up to the experiences of others. From their favorite Disney movie, they learn that the hero is a villain and the villain is misunderstood. Without any fixed reference points for knowing who they are, why they exist and how they should live, the therapist assures them that to be a victim is compelling indeed.
Nearly a century ago, the Austrian psychiatrist Victor Frankl wrote that the key factor in human survival—even basic physical and mental health—was hope. After spending years in a Nazi concentration camp, seeing the worst a fallen world could be, he argued in Man’s Search for Meaning that people need to believe in something bigger than themselves to endure even the greatest of horrors. From those insights, Frankl developed a style of therapy built on the idea that people could get better. He didn’t deny suffering, but he did insist that suffering wasn’t meaningless. His goal was not to keep people dependent on therapy or medication. He wanted to help people find restoration and healing.
Hope is at the core of the Christian message. Though the Biblical view of sin rejects entertaining optimism about the human condition or unrealistic wishful thinking about the future, it presents the Creator putting Himself at the center of this fallen world in order to renew it and reconcile us. Christ is making all things new, and that includes those who are lost and hurting.
If Frankl was correct, if there can be no healing without hope, God’s people are uniquely positioned to offer a way forward in this cultural moment. For those who don’t know who they are, or why they are, or how to live, there is hope. In fact, we know Him by name . . . Jesus, the Christ.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Pornpak Khunatorn
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
