Mental health as a religion

I thought of this because I was thinking about part of my childhood.

I lived in what is quite a strict religious family but from the age of 10 I was an atheist. I didn't believe god existed for many reasons.

Though an atheist I loved reading mythology and religious material. I read hundreds of Indian comic books which were all about the mythology of Hinduism. There were many wise teachings, teachings which ic ould not find in my science books. I loved science but I was also interested in what it couldn't offer: answers weren't available for the human condition, at least the stuff I learned in school.

Eventually I found myself knowing a lot about mental health and it is this aspect where science is applied where I've found the part of human life which religion used to have purview over.

Unhappiness and strange behaviours were explained bu churches and other religious or spiritual establishment which offered the consensus explanations, labels and solutions.

The power of god's word is replaced by science and medicine...but it is as equally apt at offering answers and, perhaps, worse.

I've made this point quickly but its something which could easily be a thesis or something.

I think people can understand how a depressed person in the past may have ended up seeing a priest rather than a doctor. Its possible certain rituals may have been used, from exorcism or confession (like counselling...).

For some these may have worked because of the power of the placebo effect, or god depending on your perspective. After all, psychiatry shouldn't dictate upon what it should know it shouldn't know: we can not yet prove or disprove the existence of god using scientific methods. The effect is so powerful a high quality review showed ECT and sham ECT to be as effective on followup yet this is an extreme treatment for extreme cases and only justified for use because of its harm and risk of death.

But that's not what I'm talking about. Im talking about how mental health replaces religion in ways such as labelling and controlling social behaviour and human types, but priests and bishops are replaced by doctors and psychiatrists. Science replaces god but the dogmatic frameworks and power structures within society have changed little.

Unmarried mothers a century ago were so sinful....or mentally ill....ir mentally unhygienic which is another term from that era...would be locked up and their children taken away. Frequent masturbators too. Gays, lesbians and anyone brave enough to be transgendered also.

Things have gotten better as a result of social progress but ultimately this sibjective quality has the attempt of the application of science to say a group. Or a type...is somehow inferior and needing to be changed to be more normal without any objective scientific constant for what is normal.

Science and religion do different things but they're still similar modes of operation to regulate the psychosocial...to regulate people and identity and explain the things which science has no answers to, yet.