Myself and Others

I still felt that other people were a breed apart from me. Two customers came in and I overheard them talkingÖMy viewpoint toward them suddenly shifted. From that point forward, my view of other people underwent a small, but radical, change.

• Lessons:

  • Loving God was part of my madness, and all that I had ever wanted of meaning in life. It was my essential identity.
  • The seeds of compassion: Loving my neighbor as myself was something that I had never done before. Now, having found my identity as a spiritual being, I could identify with others.

• Applications:

  • Mental illness, even when called a biochemical disease, is diagnosed by thoughts and beliefs not acceptable to the person experiencing them or to the society.
  • It is a mistake to require that a person call herself ìsick,î and a travesty to call this an ìinsight.î The mental health system asks us to reject our spirit.
  • The mechanism of compassionócaring both for oneself and othersóis the basic principle of peer support. Learning to respect and help other people with whom one can identify is one of the surest ways to recovery.

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