Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Mental Health, movies & the prophets

Mental Health, movies & the prophets

Last updated on: May 31, 2022 at 8:31 am by Rev. Jared V. Ingle

Mental Health, movies & the prophets 2022-05-31T08:31:20-04:00 Rev. Jared V. Ingle

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

May is mental health awareness month, although there are neverending items on the calendar.

It’s Memorial Day weekend, so it’s also time to remember.

Yesterday was also national hamburger day. We love to celebrate.

As stated many times before, I’m licensed with the state of Michigan to offer marriage, couple, group, and individual counseling because my experience and education is recognized by the state.

If you’re in Michigan and in need of online therapy, I have been providing therapy for a couple years now with an online option.

I also have many residency hours I’ve transferred into Michigan from another state.

diagnoses

One diagnosis is one thing. Sometimes families/friends do become experts in a diagnosis because of a loved one.

However, diagnoses plural is quite another.

In America, there’s the DSM. Providers who accept certain types of insurance are required to diagnose in order to receive remuneration, unfortunately. This poses an ethical dilemma for some, maybe not others.

For instance some family/group therapists absolutely refuse to diagnose an individual without seeing the whole family/group in counseling together.

different modalities

In Europe there is the ICD. My supervisor said he diagnosed over there and was familiar with it.

It has more diagnoses than the DSM. One diagnosis is General Unhappiness Disorder. He said some people just use this diagnosis until something leads them to believe otherwise, or they often never change the diagnosis.

I think with diagnoses in America, we may be taking ourselves too seriously, and forgetting about the elasticity of the brain and neural system.

To lighten things up, here are some quick movie/reading recommendations that offer perspective.

Hichki

This week I watched “Hichki,” a movie about a lady school teacher overcoming all odds somewhere in the Indus-Pacific.

Her isssue is Tourette Syndrome.

The era is yesteryear, some time when little is known about it, or possibly even about mental health.

I won’t share too much of the storyline, but I will encourage you to watch it, even though you’ll have to read English subtitles. It’s PG at the most, although the rating system may be different.

Her courage and determination is palpable despite the odds. There are various ways the “tics,” or what-have-you, of Tourette’s play out so please do not expect to ever become an expert on a topic like this because of a movie, how silly.

Nonetheless, her excellent performance gives us a glimpse of her struggle that is very real and compounded by stress.

It’s loosely based on a related autobiography of a teacher.

reading Biblical prophets, prophecy, and promises

There are academic works that deal with this. Yale has released some information recently.

However, I have nothing that wouldn’t sound offensive, especially on Sunday.

In all reality, I would like to read what someone who is an expert on the DSM or the ICD has to say about a prophet like Samuel, if the scholar is equally a Biblical scholar.

That’s the rub. Can we find scholars who are Christians, who are cross-trained?

Samuel thinks outside of the box to say the least, even standing out from OT prophets in my opinion.

Would you diagnose him?

I really don’t even like it when preachers try to size up the personalities of the disciples.

However, the prophets are a curious lot, if you’re looking at the Bible through the lens of mental health. Are they crazy or weird? Be careful because our future is still spoken of by them, like it or not. They speak as the voice of God into their times, and they’ve offered vital clues for the people of God until the clock stops ticking.

another movie night

Friyay is dinner and a movie night, fam tradition!

Dinosaur from Disney+ for the little one!

Sometimes I just like to watch trailers even if the movies aren’t free.

This week I really liked Hichki.

Friday I thought I’d try something else about mental health:
50 First Dates
Still Alice

Then I watched trailers for:
Entrapment
The Sting

Is this how people pick movies now?

I think I’m settling for:
The Adjustment Bereau

mental health movies

In all of the above movies there is a mental health issue, a systems issue, or a sociological issue if you think about it.

I really love The Adjustment Bereau for countless reasons.

However this is a perfect example of people who are pushed to make life changing decisions under duress.

To read: “How to Prove a Contract Was Signed Under Duress” CLICK HERE

For those who’d like to watch the movie Theologically consider how the pendulum swings between extreme Predestination and Open Theism. This will definitely make the movie more enjoyable for you.

Furthermore, we may consider the movie to be in the paranormal genre, and therefore dismiss it.

I would counter that we may not be considering our own Christian historical worldview, or the current worldview of the majority of Christians globally. Can we dismiss the otherworldly elements, even if we aren’t comfortable with the movie’s Theological presuppositions?

closing thought

Hopefully these movies and Biblical ideas will offer a little perspective.

At this time I don’t take insurance so I am not obligated to diagnose.

However I have in the past to the point where I seldom needed to consult the DSM to diagnose. I knew it so well.

The purpose of the article is not to divide opinions, but to offer some resources (some of them comedies).

Blessings on Memorial Day!

Theology & Psychology

memorial

movie

prophet

Previous Post

May 29, 2022

considering church & college ethics in this time

Next Post

June 5, 2022 Clement & Augustine on Psalm xix, ethics pt. 2

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Communion Cruz Ingle Crystal Ingle Early Church Engaging Culture Ethics & Society Family Formation History In Dialogue Jared & Crystal Kingdom of God Majority World Church Mateo Ingle Messenger College Mission Narrative Pentecostal Church of God Prayer Shepherding The Sermon The Writings Theology Theology & Psychology Traverse City Uncategorized Vernell Ingle Word Study

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 May 2017 March 2017 March 2014 February 2013 January 2013 October 2012 July 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 August 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Isaiah prophesied that a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Jesus.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE