1/Science can & should inform our understanding of mental health; however, there is a disturbing trend of MH professionals who stand on their lofty perches screeching that mental health is pure science & anyone who has a different perspective is a “troll” spreading misinformation

2/ Mental health is NOT purely science. It’s informed by science but also philosophy, personal values, subjective experience & so much more. What counts as “illness” & what counts as healing very much depends on what we VALUE and that is NOT reducible to science. We all get a say

3/ We shouldn’t ignore science, but it should know its place especially when it comes to MH. It should know that so many of the questions that it can inform can’t be dictated by it. I value science & it has helped me a lot (eg knowing how trauma can affect the body & brain)

4/If MH professionals would just embrace this aspect of what makes their field special rather than trying to grasp onto the hard science portrayal of it, they could help a lot more. They accuse those who raise questions of harming others by spreading misinformation & stigma

5/ My view? Nothing causes more harm than a professional who won’t stay in their lane &within the limits of what their expertise truly allows them to know. An expert who has deep humility about what they don’t know & a willingness to learn from & be guided by those they serve

6/ Seeing the lack of humility in their approaches makes me never want to trust a mental health professional. That’s the harm. When they deride those who have a different view. When they try to occupy all the space with their supposed authority, that causes harm

7/ And it’s a profession that has a huge history of using that improper extension of authority to harm those already most marginalized by ignoring and pathologizing differences in values, experiences etc.

8/ I’m lucky bc I have the assistance of one who truly gets this as I wrote in the thread below. But if I didn’t I would rather not have one at all (my view: I’m not suggesting others should follow) and that is harm. Humility matters every bit as much if not more than expertise https://twitter.com/crys_tom/status/1314708905738432512

9/ I’ve learned tons of science-y things from my therapist (who is an expert in this field). Stuff about how the body & brain can work. About how some treatment approaches can work. That’s valuable. I’d never suggest throwing science out the window. It’s helped me so much.

10/ But it needs to know its place on the big questions. He helps me because he knows the science is a tool not an authoritative answer to every big Q. My insights are just as valuable—in fact more so. The best ones know how to use science w deep humility. We don’t have to choose

11/ The biggest red flag for me is one who can’t live with the kind of humility the field calls for—who can’t share their “expertise” with the people they strive to help. Who can’t do their own work of being able to sit with how hard it can be to not have all the answers

12/ But bc I’ve seen the good ones do it (from my therapist to my friends to experts who practice w true humility &share their work in that same spirit) I know it’s a field that can do better. That can embrace the art and collaboration of helping every bit as much as the science

13/ So let’s use science to help us understand MH but also art, literature, spirituality, community, connection & other experiential & deeply personal forms of learning that science can never dictate for us. We shouldn’t need to submit to its absolute authority to be helped.

Apologies for errors in the above (which hopefully are obvious. I’m under the weather and wrote this shortly after waking up while still groggy in bed)

Also: good science that knows its limits & doesn’t overreach is actually more useful. More modest science can actually make a bigger difference since there won’t be friction between what it offers and what we need. It is easier to embrace and benefit from...

Also I'm taking aim at MH professionals because it directly affects me. But of course all professions dealing with lived experience need a huge dose of humility at all times. We need to acknowledge that this is difficult & we will screw up, so we can be ready to course correct.

Course correction is really hard once we've formed views. So if we have ANY power over others we need to know we will mess this up and have a constant practice of (1)assuming we may be wrong even about deeply held beliefs & (2)of listening for others especially the marginalized.

And to be clear I know not all MH professionals say the above. Hopefully not even most. But it’s a vocal group who hold a lot of power over people’s lives. So this is very much a subtweet of some MH professionals. Not all. I love so many here who thankfully don’t fall into this

I mean I have two therapists who are absolutely collaborative and wonderful. But this strain exists, speaks loudly, wields power and must be addressed.