Mystics and mental illness
Martin Thomas is right that some mental illness “hurts” the sufferer (“Facebook, CPA, and socialism”, Solidarity 302, 6 November 2013). The person who is depressed knows they are depressed and does not like it. But a person experiencing psychosis — delusions and hallucinations — may not know they are psychotic and does not necessarily experience subjective suffering. Most of the suffering that such people experience is due to the specific content of their psychosis and the way they are treated by the society they live in. The social context has a large bearing on the content. In our society...