The Cure That Is Love

Dr. Karl Menninger was a psychiatrist who was revolutionary for his time. His approach is still challenging to the psychiatric field today. Before World War II, when mental asylums were overcrowded, conditions were terrible, and the mentally ill were scorned by society, Menninger opened up a clinic that actually loved patients and cured them of their problems rather than just isolating them from society. In current times. we don't isolate them; we just medicate them. But Menninger was looking to cure them.

"Love cures people-both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it."

"Love is a medicine for the sickness of the world; a prescription often given, too rarely taken."

"Love is the touchstone of psychiatric treatment ... to our patient who cannot love, we must say by our actions that we do love him" (1).

When Menninger was asked, "If you knew for a certainty that you were going to have a nervous breakdown, what would you do?"

He replied, "I would close my house; I would move over onto the other side of the tracks; I would knock on doors until I had an opportunity to meet somebody who had more problems than I did; and then I'd spend my time helping them solve those problems" (2).

Meninger knew that loving others is the best cure for the problems we face.

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1. Quoted in "Menninger's long history began with a small idea."  Menininger Institute. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. 
 2. Quoted from Clarke's personal file in Clarke, J. Richard. "The Royal Road to Happiness."  Brigham Young University. 30 October 1979. Web. 27 Nov. 2010.