Stephen Weiner, Patient in the Mental Health System

Excerpts from an interview with Stephen Weiner, who recounts his experience in the mental health care system from being told he had an emotional disturbance as a child (1957–1958) to his work with a psychiatrist on strengthening his more rational self. As a child, he was not given a diagnosis, making it difficult to know how “objectively” to evaluate his condition. Probably little was known about the phenomenology of derealization and solipsism then. After college he decided to seek treatment for his growing depression and alcohol abuse under a method known as Rolfing. He describes his skepticism toward psychiatrists and allied professionals unwilling to explain the scientific basis of their treatment. He suggests that the switch to the biological model of mental illness, while mostly good, brought about new difficulties for patients. After seeing three different doctors, Weiner settled with a psychiatrist who offered relief and palliative care.