All the greatest thinkers in history have this in common

One thing that Albert Einstein, Sokrates, Bill Gates all have in common is that they would be deemed ill in the current society: not necessarily physically but instead mentally. The list goes on and on of great thinkers apparently struggling with mental illness in our current society. And you might wonder: What makes them mentally ill? Well, right now the requirements for each mental illness is determined by a group of researchers voting on whether for example depression should be diagnosed when you struggle sleeping 1 time a week or all days in a week. This is because we don’t have any biological evidence to count on; so, we must guess. Researchers don’t even use their own handbooks, for defining when someone is mentally ill for their own research; it’s too unreliable. So, yes that is one of the many reasons the greatest thinkers would “struggle with mental health issues” if there were to live in our current society, but I am in this essay going to argue for why we should declassify many mental illnesses.

We all know someone struggling from mental illness. Typically, we also know as much suffering from physical handicap, even though mental illness is concerned with mainly one organ and physical handicap much more.[1] 13% of children suffer from mental or behavioural issues, according to the DSM-5.[2] But if we take a step back and look towards nature instead, what would we then call mental or behavioural issues? Biodiversity, and is biodiversity considered bad? No; on the opposite. We want to promote biodiversity. So why is it this diversity in humans must become such a bad thing that we deem the diverse mentally ill? Well, I’ll let you decide on that.

Some might argue that there is a very good reason we deem people mentally ill; they need it. Not because they need the title, but because they need the medicine it entitles them to.[3] I am not saying we should strip everyone from their prescription medicines, hence why I said “many mental illnesses” in the start instead of all. Yes, some need their medications, and they should continue getting them, but others only need them because of society. Let me elaborate on that a bit for you. In the past we had such a thing called shamans. Shamans could speak with the divine, but if they were to come into today’s society, then instead of having a job and purpose, they would be deemed schizophrenic and send on medicine, and maybe even a mental facility.[4] I do not think that is the right thing to do and if you have had a basic course in ethics or economy neither do you. Even people having symptoms of ADHD, autism or bipolar worked well in older societies. Many of the greatest physicists throughout history have had symptoms of autism and many painters from symptoms of bipolar.[5][6]

If we merely go back to the 1800s the famous philosopher Jeremy Bentham would argue we should remove the unnecessary labels too. Why would he do that? Jeremy Bentham believes we should maximize utility. In his branch of philosophy there is a thing called cost benefit analysis, and it is used to maximize the utility in an action.[7] So, let’s try to maximize utility by making a cost-benefit analysis. First, we consider the costs of removing mental illness from the DSM-5. Then we consider the benefits.

Costs

1. Potential for temporary anger when removing mental illness
2. Potential for more deaths from suicide and self-harm.

Benefits

1. Potential for temporary anger when removing mental illness
2. Potential for more deaths from suicide and self-harm.
3. Reducing stigma which would reduce suffering.[8]
4. The U.S spends 282 billion dollars on mental health and could redirect the 282 billion to other places that would cause more happiness.[9]
5. Less misdiagnoses which would make people suffer less.[10]
6. Less overdiagnosis which would make people suffer less.[11]
7. Less unnecessary medicine addiction.[12]

As you can see in the cost-benefit analysis the benefits outweigh the costs. This shows that not only from a human or emotional standpoint shall we declassify mental illnesses but also from a logical and philosophical standpoint.

There has in the past been many illusions we blindly believed in such as alchemy, milk transfusions, geocentrism, vitalism, phrenology and so the list go on and on of collective illusions of scientific truths that were just merely established lies.[13] You might believe that we don’t have those anymore in medicine or any other fields but so did they in the 1800s and our brains haven’t changed much since then, only the technology, and there are still lots of examples of recent “scientific discoveries” found out to be false. There are even big signs in front of us hinting us to mental illness merely being a collective illusion but were ignoring them. 39% are being misdiagnosed isn’t a small mistake from a psychiatrist[14]. It is proof that mental illness is an illusion. If I guessed that a penny would land on heads and I afterwards flipped a penny there would be a 50% chance I’m right and those 50% are very close to the 39% that your diagnosis might be wrong. But if I counter in the norms and “typical symptoms” of the different mental illnesses this 11% difference from a random event and a supposedly determined event is nothing.

So, in short terms there are many reasons we should declassify mental illness. Both from a philosophical, emotional and practical standpoint. We have seen how mental diagnosis are unreliable. We have additionally weighed the benefits and costs of declassifying some mental diagnosis’s and found out the benefits outweighed the costs by a huge margin.

[1]“Disability”, an article, ChildSTATS, 2023, l. 16

[2] “DSM-5”, an article, Cleveland Clinic, 2022. ll. 3-4

[3] “Mental Health Medications”, an article, National Insititute of Mental Health, 2023, ll. 1-2

[4] “The Shaman and Schizophrenia, Revisited”, an article, Springer Nature, 2024, ll. 1-4

[5] ”Are children with autism superior at folk physics?”, an article, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2013, page 8 ll. 12-13.

[6]” Creativity and bipolar disorder: Touched by fire or burning with questions?”, an article, Clinical Psychology Review, 2012, ll 1-5

[7] “Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 02: "PUTTING A PRICE TAG ON LIFE"”, a video, Harvard University Youtube channel, 2009, 1:00-3:36

[8] “Mental illness stigma”, an article, healthdirect, 2023, ll 1-7

[9] “Mental Health and the Economy -- It's Costing Us Billions”, an article, Columbia Business School, 2024, l. 2

[10] “Diagnostic error in mental health: a review”, an article, BMJ Quality and Safety, 2024, l. 1

[11] “Mental health conditions are overdiagnosed, Streeting says”, an article, BBC, 2025, l.1

[12] “Signs of Benzo Addiction”, an article, Serenity Grove, 2023, ll. 1-4

[13] “10 Strange Medical Practices from History”, an article, Library of Congress BLOGS, 2022, ll. 6-50

[14] “Misdiagnosis, detection rate, and associated factors of severe psychiatric disorders in specialized psychiatry centers in Ethiopia”,  an article, PubMed, 2021, l. 12