TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL? THAT IS THE QUESTION.

Hello:

One of the father's of a victim of the recent airplane crash in the Alps, made the following comment which I found in the local paper.   "If there was a motive or a reason [for the co-pilot's suicidal and/or homicidal behavior] we don't want to hear it.  It is not relevant.  What is relevant is that it should never happen again."

While I have the utmost respect for this father's grief and his desire for privacy, it is nevertheless impossible to try to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again, unless we know what the co-pilot's motives and reasons for committing this horrific act were   In this regard then, his motives and reasons are totally relevant.

Another aspect of this case involves the right to privacy for the patient and his or her psychiatrist.  While having the psychiatrist tell the airline of the co-pilot's psychological problems seems to make sense, the end result would find such individuals refusing to disclose such information to the psychiatrist in the first place.

I would like to be able to give you the correct behavior to follow in this incidence but I don't know exactly what it should be.   I do know this though, --- believing that mental illness is genetic in nature precludes the co-pilot, in this instance, from sharing his problems with someone who can damage his economic well-being.   Whether we like it or not, very few people are willing to turn themselves into economic failures for the good of society as a whole. 

The psychiatric profession, especially those who practice cognitive behavioral therapy are more successful than the public at large believes.  This difference of opinion stems from the simple fact that those who have been helped by psychology do not advertise such help.   They know that they will be stigmatized if they admit to seeing a psychiatrist.

Part of this stigmatizing is due to the hit and miss situation that occurs when someone seeks psychological help.  This is not the fault of the general public at large but rather it is the industry's own fault for not understanding the situation as well as they should.

It is probably impossible for me to avoid being labelled as arrogant when I say that I have discovered a deeper level of truth about how the human mind functions which I have put forward in my aforementioned book called,  The Human Mind.

It is important to realize that the human mind is too complex for anyone at this time to understand it completely, but without trying to sound arrogant, the difference between what is currently accepted as the gospel truth about the human mind and the ideas that I am putting forward will represent a significant step forward for the human race as a whole.  

Distilling the above words further, I am trying to say that no one can be expected to be perfect when trying to understand how the human mind functions. but deeper levels of understanding do exist and I have discovered some of them.

In my aforementioned book there is a story about a woman who had psychological problems but did not disclose them to her potential employer.   She got the job and was considered to be a well - adjusted and valuable employee.

One day her boss interviewed another young lady for a job who made the mistake of admitting that she had received psychiatric help in the past.  Although the boss was charming and upbeat with this new prospective employee, --- as soon as she left the room the boss came out into the work area and  ripped up the young woman's application; --- saying that they had enough problems in the workplace without adding a crazy person to the work force. 

On the other side of the coin is this following story.  When I was in my teens, about 60 years ago, no one would talk about cancer.  The fear level was so high, everyone was too terrified to talk about it.  How can you expect to acquire funds for research if you are not even willing to talk about the problem to begin with?    

In the Alps story mentioned above one of the victims had a grandmother who was in her nineties and not in good health.   Her family decided not to tell her the truth because they correctly thought that such news might end the elder ladies life.   

To tell the truth or not is not an easy decision but the more we talk about it, the closer we will get to a more appropriate response to each personal situation.   Thanks for reading this article.