New Concepts of Mental Illnesses Based on New Information from the Neurosciences with Dr. Lewis L. Judd - Mind & Life Institute

Dialogue 2|Session 5

Overview

During the last 25 years, (1964-1989) Western concepts and practices for diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses have changed radically. Many once-mysterious mental disorders, such as alternating high and low moods and schizophrenia (“split personality”), are now perceived as psychobiological processes which result from complex interactions of constitutional and environmental factors. Developments in neuropsy- chopharmacology have helped establish a broad and expanding array of medicines with proven effectiveness for treatment of specific mental disorders. Clinical management strategies for specific mental disorders now combine psychotherapy and medications. These advances have given rise to increasingly systematic and effective treatments for mental disorders throughout the Western world, and they should have beneficial applications in other cultural settings as well. Many aspects of mental illnesses still elude our understanding and control. These shortcomings appear to reflect both the lack of sufficient empirical research and the limitations of Western theories of mental illnesses. Thus, an exploration of commonalities and differences between Tibetan Medicine and Western mental health approaches will be mutually beneficial.

Dialogue 2
6 sessions
October 6, 1989
Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India
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Speakers

Tenzin Gyatso, the14th Dalai Lama, is the leader of Tibetan Buddhism and a spiritual leader revered worldwide. He was born on July 6, 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, he was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lamas are manifestations of the Buddha of Compassion, who choose to reincarnate for the purpose of serving human beings. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989, he is universally respected as a spokesman for the compassionate and peaceful resolution of human conflict. He has traveled extensively, speaking on subjects including universal responsibility, love, compassion and kindness. Less well known is his intense personal interest in the sciences; he has said that if he were not a monk, he would have liked to be an engineer. As a youth in Lhasa it was he who was called on to fix broken machinery in the Potala Palace, be it a clock or a car. He has a vigorous interest in learning the newest developments in science, and brings to bear both a voice for the humanistic implications of the findings, and a high degree of intuitive methodological sophistication.

Bio dialogues

Lewis L. Judd, M.D. has been the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), since January, 1988. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Utah and his medical degree with honors from UCLA. Prior to joining NIMH, Dr. Judd served 11 years as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine, and as Chief of the Psychiatry Services at the UCSD Medical Center. Previously, he was member of the faculty and Director of Education in Child and Adolescent psychiatry at UCLA. Dr. Judd serves on the Scientific Council of the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression and is a member of numerous professional and scientific societies. He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and of the American Psychiatric Association, and he was recently elected to the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sciences). Dr. Judd has been a prolific contributor to the world’s scientific literature, and has served on editorial boards of scientific journals, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry, and Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. He also edited the recently published book The Basic Science Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry.

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Robert Livingston is Professor of Neurosciences Emeritus at UCSD. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University. Prior to founding the world's first Department of Neurosciences, the first department in the new School of Medicine at UCSD in 1965; he taught Neuropathology at Stanford, Neurophysiology at Yale, Psychiatry at Harvard, and Physiology and Anatomy at the UCLA Medical School. He also served as Executive Assistant to the President of the National Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the National Research Council; and as Scientific Director for both the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. Livingston has held research and teaching fellowships at the Université de Genève, Collège de France, Oxford University, Göteborg University, University of Hawaii, and University ofZürich. He is active in Physicians for Social Responsibility, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and Beyond War. He participated in the founding of the Council for a Livable World, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Elmwood Institute.

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