What is insanity? A large portion of mental health relies on the cultural frame of reference one is using when identifying what is and is not a healthy mental state. From the perspective of psychology, one is seen mentally healthy when they can live in a community harmoniously and productively, and ill when they fail to maintain their social obligations and have difficulty maintaining rewarding relationships.

Psychiatry tends to use the medical model when identifying and labeling certain states and behaviors as good or bad, ill or well. A psychiatrist will favor the neurochemical frame to that of the psycho-social dynamic of psychology. Here the brain as a physical organ is studied to find out what is normal and healthy and what is abnormal and unhealthy. From this reference point, the brain chemicals called neurotransmitters are studied in which by studying them, theory goes that health and illness can be known and predicted.

Who is to say which brain configuration of neurotransmitters are correct? In human life there exists infinite diversity and potential. There is not one paradigm or direction for the successful and happy development of a human being. Or is there? In Buddhist practice, awareness or consciousness is seen as the one "thing" that is free from attachments and suffering. To become pure awareness is to be free from the entanglements of ego identification, of which psychology and Freud maintain is a necessary part of the human whole.

The ego is a fiction however, and this fiction when taken literally can lead a person into undue stress and internal conflict. This conflict can then pour out into the external world resulting in a disharmonious life because of the cause of ego and the effect of identifying oneself as that. Life is change Eastern philosophy notes and to think and believe that ego is unchanging, the absolute eternal constant is both dangerous and wrong. If we look at mental health from the perspective of ego identification versus ego extinguishing, we can build a large support for the annihilation of ego and recognize it's benefit for the maintenance and practice of mental health.

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