This difference might seem obvious enough, but up until the twentieth century, willpower and intelligence were often considered indistinguishable.
.. Doctors across the country conducted prevalence studies, determining that at least 4–6 percent of all children could be classified as unfit for normal schooling. The commission’s report led to the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913, which established a compulsory system of state-funded specialized education along three grades of impairment: Idiocy (“unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers”); Imbecility (“incapable of managing themselves … or … of being taught to do so”); and Feeble-Mindedness (“involves disability of mind of such a nature and extent as to make them … incapable of receiving education at school”). The last grade was the vaguest and also the largest; it included the borderline category of children who, like those studied by George Frederic Still, possessed standard enough academic ability but couldn’t pay attention or behave in the classroom.
.. “Defective children learn more through their hands than their books,” he wrote.
Economist: A professional schism hinders Britain’s mental-health system
Researchers at the OECD, a club of rich countries, reckon getting mentally-ill people back to work could increase employment in Britain by nearly 5%.
.. Elaborate therapies are not always necessary—one effective treatment for those suffering mental illness is keeping them in a job.
Most lethal medical condition
In later Internet research, I found several articles suggesting that—for unknown reasons—bipolar II is one of the most lethal of mental conditions, possibly more lethal than major unipolar depression and even bipolar I, with a suicide rate estimated up to 20%. (One Medscape article, for example: “bipolar II depression. . . carries the highest suicide risk among all subtypes of major mood disorders.”)
Best Description of Depression I’ve Ever Read
“‘What I’m trying to ask, I think, is whether this feeling you’re communicating is the feeling you associate with your depression.’
Her gaze moved off. ‘That’s what you guys want to call it, I guess.’
The doctor clicked his pen slowly a few times and explained that he’s more interested here in what she would choose to call the feeling, since it was her feeling.
The resumed study of the movement of her feet. ‘When people call it that I always get pissed off because I always think depression sounds like you just get really sad, you get quiet and melancholy and just like sit quietly by the window sighing or just lying around. A state of not caring about anything. A kind of blue kind of peaceful state.’