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Perfect mental health: a historical perspective


I'm no expert on mental health. All I offer here is an observation about a use of the phrase in the Victorian period that I find very interesting. 

Sir James Stephen (civil servant, historian, son of member of the Clapham Sect) uses the phrase 'mental health' twice in a volume of essays on 17th and 18th century English reformers and revivalists. One reference is to Henry Venn:

"He was one of the most eminent examples of one of the most uncommon of human excellencies — the possession of perfect and uninterrupted mental health." (Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, p. 107) 

In the following long paragraph Stephen explains what he means largely in relation to the 'harmony' of Venn's mind, affections and life; how all his thinking, feeling and actions were balanced, co-ordinated and served a single goal as 'tributaries' feeding into a great river. Towards the end of this description of the harmonised, single-minded life Stephen writes:

"He was at once a preacher, at whose voice multitudes wept or trembled, and a companion, to whose privacy the wise resorted for instruction, the wretched for comfort, and all for sympathy. In all the exigencies and in all the relations of life, the firmest reliance might always be placed on his counsels, his support, and his example."

J C Ryle agrees: 

"The vicar of Huddersfield appears to me to have possessed the spirit of counsel and of a sound mind in an eminent degree." (Christian Leaders, p. 295)

Ryle continues with examples from Venn's letters of his godly advice to people in all sorts of situations. Balleine similarly talks about Venn's advice as the chief evidence of his 'perfect mental health':

"His common sense was sensible and sanctified to the highest degree, and shepherds and weavers, saints and sinners flocked to his study for advice. But behind all the good advice that he gave about farms or quarrels or marriages, there was always the deep desire to win the soul for God." (History of the Evangelical Party, p. 73)

John Stephen's other reference to mental health is in connection with Henry Thornton (MP, banker, philanthropist, host of the Clapham Sect):

"Like the life-blood throbbing in every pulse and visiting every fibre, [his piety] was the latent though perennial source of his mental health and energy. (Essays, p. 192)

The paragraph that follows describes Thornton's peace and forbearance in the midst of illness, happily surrendering to the good and sovereign will of his Father and concludes:

"Surrounded to his latest hours by those whom it had been his chief delight to bless and to instruct, he bequeathed to them the recollection of a wise, a good, and a happy man" (ibid) 

What I find so interesting about this is that it is a definition of 'mental health' that is:

  1. Communal rather than individual. Good mental health is seen not so much in how a person relates to themselves but more in how they relate to others. It is not so much about being able to be content on your own in an empty room but more about being useful in a room full of people. 
  2. Giving rather than receiving. Rather than it being about having ones own needs met (for acceptance, validation, respect, safety, security etc.) important as they may be, this understanding of good mental health stresses how it manifests in helping others and meeting their needs.
  3. Wisdom rather than emotion. While these Victorian writers do talk about peace and happiness, the stress seems to be on what the Bible would describe using the category of wise guidance and instruction (Prov 1:3; 10:13; 25:11; 27:9).
It all makes me think of Jesus in the upper room in John 13-17. He was 'deeply troubled' - in mental anguish - and yet, surrounded by his disciples, he ministered to them words of deep assurance and indestructible joy, eternal life and perfect wisdom. 



References:

G R Balleine, A History of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England, 1909.
J C Ryle, The Christian Leaders of the Last Century, 1871.
James Stephen, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, Volume II, first published 1849 (the edition I'm referencing is a 1907 reprint available here).
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