Exploring the being of knowing

Foreword mental health philosophy

Foreword mental health philosophy

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Argument of Mental Health Philosophy presents the epistemological context of mental health, arguing ‘mental health’ be used as the practical term as it accounts for and explains the functioning of psychology, psychiatry, neurology, and other disciplines that propose things about mental health and how to intervene in mental issue and disorder. Mental Health Philosophy accounts for the real functioning of people involved with mental health as phenomena, as that which accounts for and explains functioning in the greatest sense is termed ‘true’. By this discernment, disciplinary activity is pronounced more accurately, and due to this greater accuracy, promotes a larger field for understanding of what is happening and enhances the potential effectiveness of treatment for mental issues. By grounding material efforts in this substantive philosophy, the realization of Mental Health Philosophy will allow practitioners to have much less doubt in their ability, its adoption in pedagogical approaches to training (including its empirical scientific branches) will benefit the discipline of mental health overall, and the awareness it promotes will move the helping professions forward significantly. 

Always there is pushback. This is the problem.

When we push back against my own experience I experience mental problems. This is so much the case that even as institutions such as psychology wish to help people with their issues, it works more often to promote, rather than solve, that the problem has greater dimensions than the person can handle. I find this to be, at minimum, disheartening.

It appears to me the world is filled with world-filling people;

mental health arises at the intersection of dealing with the Ego-congested psychological world.

The Argument of Mental Health Philosophy is a chapter in my upcoming book. It is an effort to bring individual people who struggle with psychology (including those in the helping professions) back to earth, so to speak. Back to what is actually happening.

Practically. Intelligently. Simply.

…Even as it might toke some effort.

Come back to Earth you wayward souls.

agencymatters.org

You are mattering

Enjoying this? The Sunday Same is my biweekly letter: one essay like this, every other Sunday morning, straight to your inbox. Subscribe at lanceamh.substack.com.

A note on how I use AI. I write everything on this blog myself: the ideas, the arguments, the words. I do use AI, but as an editor, not a co-author. It helps me with grammar, formatting, and structure. That use is recent: AI has been part of my process only for roughly the past year’s worth of posts. Everything older was written without it, because there was nothing like it to use. What I have found is that AI most often misinterprets what I write philosophically, so its suggestions are usually wrong, and a good deal of my attention and editing goes into sculpting each post until it reflects the ideas correctly. The ideas are never AI’s.

For transparency, I keep a Word document of my original writing and the full exchanges, back and forth with the AI, that produced each post. If anyone is interested in how a piece came together, that record is available.

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About this blog

Essays in mental health philosophy—less “tips,” more why things work (or don’t). I look at the first principles under therapy, psychiatry, psychology, and everyday life, and occasionally share notes from papers and books-in-progress.

This space stands alongside—not inside—my counseling practice. If you’re seeking therapy in Colorado, there’s a link in the footer.

About the author

Lance Kair, LPC, blends philosophy, mindfulness, and counseling to help clients find agency, meaning, fulfillment, and healing through deep understanding, self-awareness, and compassionate therapeutic collaboration.

Copyright © 2025 Lance Kair, LPC | Website by TechG

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