Often people sing the song of modern neuroscientists, that mental issues are representative of actual chemical imbalances and physiological abnormalities. Thus, to fix neural problems, they intuit that the optimal solution is to change the neurochemistry through psychiatric means. While the neuroscientific underpinnings in representing mental conditions are empirically verified, their rectification through psychiatric means is not always pragmatically optimal towards its resolution. They are right, but draw the wrong conclusion as to an antidote.

Medication does, in most cases, provide a benefit in altering our neural state, and thus our conscious experience. This alleviates anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders which may be more pronounced in an individual in reference to the “average” human, mostly through means of “blunting” the subjective experience of dissatisfaction arising from their physiological underpinnings. What psychiatry fails to take into account is the existential orientation, social development, the individual psychology, the childhood nurturing, and the psychological patterns that precede the development of the “diagnosable” mental disorder. If we only treat the manifest symptoms neurologically, we are failing at acknowledging underlying issues, and pay an opportunity cost in the individual’s holistic development to be able to optimally navigate their internal and external world. We offer a crutch, an excuse, a label, and subsequently a path to victimhood, helplessness, and an unintegrated psyche. Medication is never permanent, and the management of mental health is sustained only insofar as the patient continues medication.

The caveat must be made that for many mental conditions neurochemical intervention is optimal, and for many other neurological abnormalities that result from development, drug intervention in accordance with cognitive development may be optimal. Wisdom, and adequate scientific testing is necessary to discern which of the categories patients fall into. The prime issue here is for the vast majority of people that are increasingly being medicated for psychological disorders that fail to recognize the developmental and psychological historicity of the individual. For many of these people, there is the potential to develop themselves and integrate their psyche to deal with whatever misfortune, negative emotion, negative self-image, or lifestyle problems that underlie the mental condition, whose manifestations take the form of “diagnosable” illnesses as a result. This category encompasses the majority of individuals solely using medication as a means to regulate their conscious experience, social position, and life issues.

The philosophical, biological, social, and cultural underpinnings, the experience of the individual, and the conscious state of mind which has developed in consequence must be taken into account in order to move forward with these patients. There is no way around the problems in their lives, and numbing them, or chemically altering their brains to produce a better conscious experience, doesn’t address the underlying problems, or provide the patient with the knowledge to independently move forward in their lives, relationships, interests, or what provides meaning to them. Psychiatric intervention alone does not modify these parts of our Being that ought to mean the most to us, and this is where the core of the problem lies.

The biggest hindrance to developing an integrated psyche from a place of present mental disruption, is the belief that only medication can solve mental problems. The mode of being certain in regards to the belief of psychiatric solutions being the only necessary intervention to psychological problems, closes off the individual to developing the proper social, and internal psychic integration necessary to actually deal with the negative phenomena intruding into our lives.

Whether the patient lies on the extreme end of psychological disorganization and physiological abnormality, or closer to the “average”, philosophical and psychological solutions in accordance with each other, and often as a sole remedy apart from medication, are our best way forward for clinically aiding those with a negative experience of life, whose lives are in disarray. Those who have prior trauma negatively impacting them, or have been slapped with a diagnosis such as ADHD, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and even forms of bipolar disorder, all still need to get their lives together and learn to cope with their experience, regardless of their current use of medication or not. Each philosophical or psychological solution posited here can be useful towards the individual integrating his Being towards an optimal place in order to navigate life’s struggles, but if one is to pursue the completion of all of them, then I hypothesize, the psychological wellbeing and social integration will be from an optimal baseline from which the individual can successfully navigate life. These empirically verified solutions include external optimization, mindfulness, correct origination of personality conceptualization, existential clarification, exposure therapy, value system explication, goal setting, habit formation, and virtue emphasis training. Psychological methods such as EDMR, talk therapy, and general forms of psychoanalysis are extremely useful, and have a growing number of clinically verified data suggesting their benefit over medicinal solutions. I posit here existentialist, and philosophical methodologies to be used as an alternative, or supplement, to alleviating mental health problems. Even if an individual hasn’t been specifically diagnosed in a clinical setting, yet still wants to reorganize and optimize their lives, and form a value system, these tools can be used universally for our benefit. In any case, it is better to create an integrated psyche prior to problems arising, prior to trauma, when things are going good, then to be unprepared when the misfortunes of life do hit us, which, they inevitably will. In this way, these methods can be used by those already suffering from mental problems, and those who have a “healthy” mind. In general, the training of the mind towards achieving external stability, and integrating its divisible components to a holistic psyche which understands itself, and its values, will produce a meaningful experience of life that is simultaneously suited to the social world in which we find ourselves thrown into.

Before we can optimize the psyche to be able to navigate the world, we must accurately discern the problem. This is where prior diagnoses can be utilized to give insight into prior clinician’s categorization of the mind in question. All individual data is relevant, some more than others. If the patient complains of an ailment that is hindering progress to a positive communal relationship, or posits the existence of a psychological disorder, pinpointing exactly what the problem is will be essential in getting the ball rolling towards what needs to change. Whether it is an obvious external shift, such as a failed relationship, a step back in a career trajectory, or of a subtler internal state, such as subjective dissatisfaction, repetitive anxiety, or damaged sociability, we ought to correctly assess our lives and the lives of our patients to discern exactly what it is that we desire to be otherwise. When a patient in disarray arrives with negative conscious experience, it is often useful to analyze the five big aspects of his communal integration before even looking to internal integration issues.

Often times external optimization is the catalysts supplementing the internal symptoms. Does the individual have a good social system – comprised of a healthy family relationship and a good relationship with friends? A job? A stable living situation? A romantic partner? Meaningful pursuits, interests, or hobbies outside of work? If these five questions aren’t first addressed, then any psychological issue will be exasperated, and perhaps caused, by the nature of the individual’s relationship to social life. Family and friends, work, living situation, love, and individual interests ought to be optimized to ensure stability and a proper framework for the individual to work from. Before anything else, we have to examine our relationship to these five areas, if any of the five, or more than one of the five are lacking, nonexistent, or severely damaged, the posited negative psychological experience may be merely social and environmental by nature. While deficiency in these areas can be psychological stressors and manifest mental dissatisfaction if not properly fulfilled, they also can be caused by a psychological ailment or unintegrated psyche which stems from other sources. Discerning our place in relation to them, and a pathway to optimizing them, can lead to providing a stable external support system and meaning, as well as rectifying anxiety to one of life’s basic needs, communal life. Before anything else, we ought to discern the individual in question’s relationship to these five categories, and work with them to rectify problems in all the domains.

When a patient, friend, or family member complains to us of experiencing depression, and we realize that they currently are unemployed, have a drinking problem, are lacking hobbies and interests, and have a broken relationship to their family, we ought not act surprised at their experiencing of a negative subjective experience. It would be altogether incomprehensible if they weren’t feeling some form of depression given their situation. To treat a mental state stemming from a deficiency in any of these five domains with medication, is obviously a misguided attempt. If more than one is deficient at any given time, we ought to expect a negative mental state, and encourage the individual in whatever area isn’t rectified towards its alleviation. The best medication for the individual may be a stable job, talking to his father, pursuing his forgotten interest in martial arts, or attempting to go on dates. Extreme diagnoses are often not necessary, and in these cases of external deficiency, a practical attitude ought to be undertaken towards, at the minimum, finding stability in these five areas of our lives.

In analyzing our relationships and external situation we can discern real life problems that can be rectified alleviating psychological suffering with some of the methods I will explain later on. Oftentimes these relationships are stressed not by misfortune or neglect, but due to an internal disposition, personality type, childhood socialization, as well as being the product of psychological disintegration. In uncovering the root of the problem we can look to underlying traumas, and phenomenal experience to be able to conclude on what is instantiating the problem. This knowledge is crucial to forming any type of pathway forward. Rather than medicate the emergent symptoms, we seed to psychologically rectify the root causes, to mitigate the symptoms at their source. If external misfortune is crossed off, we must look to several other areas to pinpoint shortcomings.

We can look into the personal subjective experience of the individual through instructing mindfulness or Vipassana training, which can identify problems through an accurate depiction of the nature of the patient’s experience, as well as have the tangential effect of revealing the content of consciousness to the individual. By focusing upon the content of consciousness within the present moment, the patient grows in the ability to understand the nature of their Being, leading to insights into root causes of manifestations of phenomena through identification of its causal connectivity, as well as learning to cope and remain an observer to emergent negative phenomena as they arise into the domain of consciousness. For the patient, both of these results are beneficial, for the psychologist, the revelation of articulatability of the internal states can provide the necessary data to identify personality types, thought patterns, and the nature of his patient’s internal life. With the practice of mindfulness, the individual can be simultaneously trained to better navigate existence, as well as provide the relevant data that will strengthen the understanding and helpfulness of the psychologist’s intuition in pinpointing a problem to be planned in accordance with towards the individual’s recalibration to a more “successful”, “stable”, “meaningful”, and “positive” mental experience.

Where the external life and the internal life fail to provide an adequate explanation or solution to the ailment of the individual, developmental history and the nature of the individuals upbringing ought to be the next area of inquiry. Even if we are able to pinpoint a troubled psychological complex existing in the present, a personality type that is lacking development in a domain, or strained interpersonal relationships, these merely point to the expression of underlying issues, which, in order to be integrated, the patient must uncover the underlying causal foundation that led to their production. This necessarily entails a close examination of infancy, childhood, and developmental upbringing. Here EDMR and psychoanalysis are useful tools to be able to accurately perform talk therapy and reveal what could be repressed memories that have a significant impact upon the psyche of the individual. Birth order, parental and educational systems, developmental history in general, all is useful information. Here an in-depth knowledge of Individual psychology, and psychoanalytic theory is invaluable. The development of the individuals psychological coping strategy often is rooted in childhood patterns, towards which we ought to attempt to understand in order to understand the roots which have manifest the current psychological tendencies. Oftentimes deficiency in parental nourishment and teaching, sibling influence, and formal education systems in early childhood merge to provide the personality of the childhood and the strategy to which he adopts in coping with life. The lifestyle of the individual, as Alfred Adler proposed, is always the able to be discerned in his communal feeling and method of coping with the combination of his environmental influencers, and this strategy, lifestyle, or personality, has its roots in childhood.

Psychoanalysis directed towards uncovering childhood developmental patterns can enable us to link those developmental patterns across the span of the individuals’ lifetime to the present manifestations, and often there is an overarching narrative of explanation which characterizes the individual’s method of coping in the world. By revealing this to the individual they become empowered to understand the potential shortcomings in their philosophy of life, without which they wouldn’t be able to address them. These can be revealed, and modified through the subsequent methods which will be explained.

Once a psychological pattern of coping with life, trauma revelation, and present moment awareness has been implemented towards the articulation of a basic “self-knowledge”, one can lay claim to a hypothesis upon the root of the issues causing the shortcoming or mental disturbance which plagues conscious existence within the present. Understanding ourselves occurs in degrees, and a basic holistic view established upon the content available to us that links a description of personality and experience in the present to the totality of ones Being and historicity is necessary before attempting to alleviate any psychological problems.

Often times existential questions and the unknown which they elicit plagues the conscious mind, and towards such inquiries a rudimentary cohesive framework ought to be established to remove dissonance and allow an overarching purpose to be established, providing meaning to the life of the patient. I theorize that once a cohesive, uncontradictory, value system and metaphysical belief structure is firmly established, explicitly realized and consciously directed, then actualized, the majority of life’s struggles lose their sting, and the mental difficulties which face all of us find their altar to be sacrificed upon for the experiential wellbeing which meaning pursuance provides. The process by which we reveal our current value system, consciously intuit a novel framework, and actualize it, is quite a lengthy endeavor, but in all cases it is surely worth it. Here I’ll provide a summary, but for a longer length exploration of the subject, the essay “Value System Instantiation” makes an invaluable contribution.

To establish a new value system, the individual must first make known to himself what his current value system is. This can crudely be established by a look at our priorities, in how we spend our time, what takes precedence over other content, what people / relationships / virtues we value and spend time in developing. What we do, what we focus and concentrate upon, the time we spend in any given activity and the aims of such activities, can give us insight into our current values. Oftentimes our uncovered values, what we spend the most time on, and what we think about the most, isn’t in alignment with what we wish we were focused upon. This is the groundwork for regret, anxiety, and a negative self-image for many of us, that can be rectified with determined hard work, discipline, a reevaluation of what we ought to value, and time management.

Once our current values are established, we ought to visualize how our time is spent, and delineate what we want to want. Our current value system never is sufficiently satisfying for us, it never fully satiates our desire, nor embodies the characteristics we wish to value to the extent we wish to do so. This inherent place of deficiency propels us forward in the world we find ourselves in, in directions which are determined by the totality of our Being, as it has so developed. In uncovering and articulating our values in the present, in a clear and concise fashion, we can also sketch out the virtues, skills, and things we wish to achieve, and using that knowledge, look to form an explicitly articulated value system more in alignment with a consciously deduced system, in a top down manner, rather than the bottom up system which naturally propels us forward (DNA, perception, filtration, attention, direction). The bottom up value system can be found explained in the essay (What it Means to be Conscious). Here we are attempting to influence this same system, from conscious control (direction), in other words, the conscious articulation of values, and the conscious propensity to direct or orient our Being in a certain way, becomes the causal precursor to the subsequent action and thus (re)conditions our embodied Being, rewiring the bottom up system to be integrated with a consciously formulated value system.

In contemplating who we wish to be, the values we wish to actualize, we ought to look to areas of the psyche that are unintegrated, as uncovered in the first area of psychoanalysis. Those areas of our life experience which improper orientation and insufficient development has left us suffering, whether it’s our relation to externalities, interpersonal relationships, or inner management and subconscious integration. For a more in-depth look at archetypal integration on the road to centroversion of the psyche, the work here may be useful (Jungian Archetypes) / (Enantiodromia). The areas of deficiency ought to be accounted for as being rectified in the ideal image of the potential person we strive to actualize. We ought not merely capitalize on the areas of our most significant interest and natural disposition, although those areas are of high value, we must likewise place a value on the deficient aspects of our Being. If we wish to be properly balanced and integrated in the totality of our psyche than we must develop the aspects of our personality and sociality which are difficult to us. If we are introverted than we ought to work to be comfortable in large groups, and if we are extroverted we should look for ways to be content alone. In a likewise manner, if we are too disagreeable, it would benefit us socially to practice agreeableness, and vice versa. We will inevitably be placed in those situations which are naturally uncomfortable to us– therefore it would be beneficial to develop our psyche voluntarily than be confronted with aversive situations for which we are ill-prepared, and face the consequences both internally and socially. In developing our psyche and integrating its deficient modes into the fold of the totality, we becoming better equipped to handle the set of all problems, and working from that place of holistic competency, individual problems that inevitably arise will be met with confidence.

An external value system explicitly defined may look something like: survival, family, friends, sufficient income (work) for independence, personal goals in specific interests (self-development / learning / creating), hobbies, entertainment. An internal value system may priority compassion and truth, where priorities are held so that navigation is optimized depending on situations. Each individual topic can be further extrapolated upon and detailed. Say for the family domain, the interests of a child may be prioritized over a cousin, a hobby of primary interest may be prioritized over a less valued hobby. Everything is more important than entertainment, and valued and allocated time primarily. Yet entertainment can still be valued, for purposes of social discord, and mental and physical wellbeing. If work is done for the week, and the individual is pursuing an individual interest, such as reading on a domain they are interested, and a family member calls in a crisis, the value system recognizes the priority of the value, and is able to shelf the current endeavor for one of higher value. These frameworks can be done in multiple levels, and reinforced through time spent and action. The wisdom to navigate them necessarily requires updating as new knowledge and experience informs us of the optimal strategy. In this way the system is cybernetic, in that our experience informs our values, and how to pursue them, and the values inform the actions which make up our experience. Both systems of influence run tangentially, and conscious adaptation, reorganization, and ability to pursue values arises out of unconscious assimilation. The conscious aspect is to direct our Being towards integration of everything of high value into a system that we can pursue with stability.

Delegation of activity in accordance with our values to spontaneity and unconscious pursual can be done through habituation (Conscious Use of Unconscious). If we consciously structure our time in accordance with the things we value, and goals in regard to each domain, such as being a good husband, son, father, friend, becoming a great philosopher, developing an attractive physique, being healthy, etc., all can be pursued daily, weekly, or in any interval of time which the patient finds not overwhelming, yet sufficiently challenging to provide meaning. The organization of time to fit in pursuance of these goals, in accordance with our values, in a structured format, provides the freedom to do what we want to do. Adherence to it actualizes our value system, and I normatively claim that if we structure each day in accordance with those values, we will live a meaningful life, as we are exercising our freedom to do what is important to us in a disciplined manner. Jocko Willink describes this in the seemingly paradoxical formula of “Discipline Equals Freedom”. If you want financial freedom, you need to exercise financial discipline. If you want freedom of movement, and the strength or athleticism to influence the physical world, you need physical discipline in the form of exercise and diet. Similarly, if you want the freedom to pursue what you value, you need to be disciplined in your daily structure, or pay the opportunity cost of distraction and deviation from what you value, providing less progress in the areas which you value more. As this theoretical value system becomes actualized, it will produce a life that is meaningful, and consequently a subjective experience of wellbeing, that is, if the theoretical value system truly is a representation of what is important to us. Any progress towards goals and values necessarily creates the internal disposition of fulfillment, and even if such pursuance is difficult, the silver lining always makes it worth it.

Wisdom is the crucial element here. No system is perfect, any new structure of time and activity necessarily entails growing pains towards its optimization. We may delegate too much time to one value, and not enough to another, and need to reassess our day. Proper planning and structuring must take into account outlier phenomena, and be able to adapt to situations which arise that we haven’t planned for, yet must be managed in their occurrence. Sickness, death of a loved one, existential crisis of friends, all are monkey wrenches thrown into the turbulent waters of life – we must be prepared for the unknown. We must be prepared to handle the misfortune and suffering of existence that is outside of our domain of control as they arise, while simultaneously pursuing what is valued in their absence. The more misfortune and challenges that arise that we take on voluntarily, the better suited we are to handle them in the future. In this manner, the challenge is the training, and the training is the challenge (Training and Challenges). In addition to proper planning, we ought to leave discretionary periods to the occurrence of unplanned for phenomena. If we can habitualize ourselves to a steady disciplined structure, we don’t have to necessarily live a rigid life devoid of entertainment or flexibility. This too can be accounted for.

In terms of personality development, we hold a different value system, which ought to be more concentrated upon the virtues and traits we wish to embody. If we find ourselves in too rigid a lifestyle, the delegation of time every week to trying a new activity can provide the training to modify our openness to experience trait. If we are introverted yet wish to be holistically integrated to a wider variety of experience, we can delegate time to social outings. If we are too agreeable, we can firmly state our beliefs even if they are contradictory, in a prudent manner. As with anything, what we focus on, what we spend time on, naturally we will improve upon. This isn’t merely of the “mind cure” variety, it isn’t the “secret” of thin kit and it will become reality. It’s neural plasticity. Any consciously directed volitional activity, any such moment of concentration and effort in a given field produces changes in our neural network, it either strengthens connections previously established, or creates novel pathways which themselves can be further reinforced. Whether we’re adherents to a freewill doctrine, or a deterministic worldview, we can all agree that the more effort, time, and training we spend developing an area of our lives, the more competent in that field we will become. This is can be both subjectively verified, as well as verified in the consistent rewiring of our neural connections within the field of neuroscience. The proper relation of time to value pursuance, psychological integration, habitualization, and personal growth in the direction of becoming the idealized person we wish to become, will move our dial closer to that ideal, which, every moment spent in such a state of progression in alignment with value, always produces wellbeing and meaning, to us, as it’s what we value.

The more time spent within a system tailored to our consciously uncovered and articulated value system, however rigid it may seem on the onset, the easier it becomes to live a meaningful life. The removal of short term pleasure, distractions, and low value activities aides us in simultaneously removing feelings of living purposeless life. If we can change our lifestyle away from unconsciously being lead towards actions, situations, people, and activities which we don’t value, we can remove the negative self-image of us being someone who we don’t want to be. Stress, depression, concentration issues, all still may arise, but they will arise because we care about what we are doing, because it is meaningful to us – they all now have a rational place in promoting a system that is moving towards its desired end. The negative subjective experiences that plagued us before in relation to any undesired stimuli will be mitigated substantially, as we will be more engaged only in activities of value. This means that negative emotions and experiences that are contrary to our “will” only arise in reference to valuable content, which is their correct instantiation, and can lead us to meaningful challenges to overcome, and point out flaws in our navigation of whatever domain they appear to be arising in reference to. This is the correct manifestation of undesirable mental states, and they themselves play a crucial role in modifying us appropriately to the situation which they arise. Anxiety in reference to an important meeting, or date, can be the catalyst pushing us to concentrate on being well prepared. Sadness in response to misfortune occurring in a love one’s life can enable us to be sympathetic in our attempt to alleviate their suffering. Regret in response to not manifesting a virtue we deem important, such as telling a self-aggrandizing lie to a friend, creates moral shame that can be used as fuel to influence us to act otherwise in the future. This movement, whether containing misfortune, negative experience, or imposition of malevolence, will be seen as meaningful. The ailments of psychological suffering will have a purpose, it will be seen as part of a greater good, and will no longer have the same sting as it once did when it wasn’t in reference to something we value. In turn, we can see such subjective experiences as being useful in the pushing forth of our Being, as long as were still moving in accordance with our values and virtues.

Now that our relation to proper externalities has been established, a value system delineated, and habits and structures set up so that we are progressing towards our highest ideal aim through its actualization in our daily lives, and by doing so fulfilling our potential, we ought to take into account an emphasis on our character in doing so. While me way have been focused upon the consequences of our actions in producing wellbeing and a meaningful life, implying a type of utilitarian morality, here we wish to shift our focus upon virtue ethics, on acting in accordance with virtues and character traits we wish to embody (Virtue Ethics). This aspect will also cybernetically influence the system. We ought to embody not only the actions and personality traits we value, but simultaneously pursue our goals and spend our time in a virtuous manner. If we value discipline and responsibility, we ought to stick to our rational plan, and become independent from relying on others. We ought to take responsibility for our lives, and everything in them that we have the ability to effect or change. Jocko’s idea of “extreme ownership” is useful here, he describes how we ought to place anything in our realm of influence upon our own backs. If there is something going wrong, that we had the ability to modify or improve, but failed to do so, we ought not look for someone else to blame but look at where we could have performed better. This doesn’t mean accepting any external evil directed upon us as being our fault, but in situations where we look to blame a coworker, a friend, or a boss for a shortcoming, we ought to look to where we could have done better to mitigate or avoid the problem, and take responsibility for that lack of foresight. If we value compassion as a virtue, we ought to develop the wisdom in being able to provide a net benefit to others in their journey, rather than a hindrance. In actualizing virtue ethics in accordance with the idealized consequential goals, every moment isn’t only a pursuance of an actualized ideal, but a potential realm of expressing a virtuous Being in going about it.

As far as psychological health is concerned, we ought not only utilize the tools developed in modern psychology and clinical therapy, but also utilize aspects of existential philosophy. We ought to look to phenomenology to discern our facticity as the Being which we are. The past, present, and future all are of crucial relevance. Psychotherapy, exposure therapy, mindfulness, trauma exploration, self-evaluation in regards to shortcomings, external optimization in regards to our social feeling, value system optimization, time management, habitualization, and an emphasis on virtue can all be utilized to provide the means for psychological wellbeing and integration. Medicine may remove the negative subjective experience, but it in no way optimizes our entire understanding of ourselves, nor provides us with a meaningful life. If these tools and processes are carried out, whether in accordance with psychiatric means, or alone, we can help ourselves and others to live the most meaningful lives we have the potential to live. We can always choose to strive on diligently towards our highest ideal aim, and the burden of responsibility is on us to do so, for our own good, and the good of the society which we inhabit.