Mentally Ill Psychiatrists?

" The mind is a combination of our inner Truth and the external observed through the senses. Likewise, Mental Health is a combination of inner Belief and Physical Health. The stronger the former, the steadier the mind. Our inner Truth is as per our ‘experience’...." 

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

Professor Harry Minas
Director Center for International Mental Health, School of Population Health
University of Melbourne
Level 5, 207 Bouverie Street
Carlton Victoria 3053 Australia

Dear Professor Minas,


(December 10, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I refer to the 7th International Mental Health System Development Conference on the basis of Mental Health Crisis in Sri Lanka, organized by the University of Melbourne and held on 28th and 29th October 2010. I provide my feedback as a Common Australian Tamil without any formal qualifications in Mental Health, but with experience as a victim of Government Administered Mental Health system here in Australia as well as in Sri Lanka.

I identified with the essence of the speeches made by Tamil Psychiatrists - Professor Daya Somasundaram and Dr. Sivayokan. As a woman I really enjoyed listening to Ms Visakha Tillekeratne.

Overall, the conference to me, was lacking in substance and strongly indicates the need for our psychiatrists to seek some cure for their own mental illness before they set out to treat their patients. It was ‘top heavy’ and overcrowded with statistics and sadly lacking in feelings of victims.

Dr. Jayan Mendis, President – Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists (whose endorsement the Health Ministry of Sri Lanka required me to obtain to help my people from Vanni incarcerated in the Chettikulam camps ) takes the cake by focusing on Sigiriya – a Rock Fortress built by Sinhalese Royalty, which is now largely a tourist attraction! That to me was like talking about a small Buddha statue within Thiruketheeswaram Sivan temple.

As Ms Tillekeratne said about the Sri Lankan Government – this focus may not have been deliberate in terms of neglect and/or discrimination but once the damage has ‘happened’ / the problem has surfaced, the government and its representatives have the responsibility to consciously override actions that have the effect of producing outcomes which would happen to be racial if majority are of a particular race and race is the strongest basis for ‘belief’ based actions. Belief based actions are natural. They will always be ‘right’ in the natural environments of the believer. They are often unjust in foreign environments. Multicultural environments are foreign environments to those Sinhalese who believe strongly in their culture and to Tamils who believe strongly in their culture.

This is also a problem here in Australia where decisions are made due to ‘habit’ and discrimination happens due to failure to strictly adhere to merit basis where the complainant is of a different culture. Those who are ‘used’ to power fail to consciously override their habit through merit basis. Habits develop belief and v.v.

Here in Australia, the Executive Government, the Human Rights Commission and the Judiciary ask for objective evidence that race was the reason for discrimination. Where the complainant does not have controlling power at the places and times of incidents through which the complainant suffered pain and loss, any objective evidence is needed only to establish the loss. The reason needs to be as per the belief of the victim except when proven through accepted merit based assessment. Those with control over the production of the outcome have the responsibility to show ‘cause’ – which in the case of the Vanni camps is the Government of Sri Lanka. Those without such control have only to ‘prove’ that they suffered due to the effects. The reason ‘why’ needs to be the ‘belief’ of the victims. That would be the combination in any just society.

In terms of Mental Health also – there is this combination. The side represented by Dr. Mendis needs to ‘show cause’ as to why their race attacked Tamils – a minority race. If their side believed that the Tamil Tigers were Terrorists – then that belief would continue to urge them to provide extraordinary care to Tamils especially close to the Tiger areas. These Tamils are likely to believe that their leaders are Freedom Fighters. Only a Greater Common Belief would cure them of this. It cannot be cured by external medication including the minds of ‘foreign/alien doctors’. There is no evidence that this was covered by the Conference.

Tamils representing the victims of this war needed to establish the effects on their side and express their belief as to why it happened. We have expressed this to be ‘race’. I was able to do this against Mr. Howard’s government, through the judicial system, using Racial Discrimination Act 1985. As per my knowledge, there is no parallel to this in Sri Lanka and hence there is no Administrative system even to hear cases of discrimination at the individual level.

When I applied to go to the camps to be with the IDPs, the Mental Health system in Sri Lanka did not have the appropriate Administrative structure to assess me on merit basis. One senior Administrator said to me ‘Don’t go there and ask for Separate State’. I absorbed that pain and waited patiently for the clearance to go to Vavuniya. While waiting I prayed – including to Lord Buddha. Prayers are the inner arms of the believer. I just needed to get the job done to be with the victims. Towards this I absorbed the discrimination pain. That above statement is proof of racial discrimination. Yet, this weakness in the Health Administrative system was not addressed at all during the Conference. That to me is - the sicker treating the sick. So long as I did not have any record of terrorist activity, I had the right to be with my people. There was no need for any other special merit based clearance. To the extent the Government used emergency laws in Tamil areas, it had that responsibility to facilitate Tamils to use their belief to serve their people. Towards this the Administrators needed to set aside all ‘normal’ procedures. The Government needed to do this to be clear of racial discrimination guilt and charges.

The mind is a combination of our inner Truth and the external observed through the senses. Likewise, Mental Health is a combination of inner Belief and Physical Health. The stronger the former, the steadier the mind. Our inner Truth is as per our ‘experience’. Without experience, all theory is mere Ehttu Churakkai (Book Vegetable). Your doctors are suffering from high doze of Ehttu Churakkai.

As indicated above – our actions are based on a combination of belief and calculations based on knowledge of the external. When you treat us – to the extent of our belief in you, we cure ourselves. All other treatment is to clear the ‘infection’ from the outside – often caused by the groups that your doctors belong to.

On that basis, I conclude that the Conference was largely for you to pat each other on the back than to share in the pain of victims – because the real victims as far as your doctors are concerned, are the ones within them. The ones within come with the common experience to gain which doctors have to be humble with those who have had the experience.