406 ALBERT S. MORACZEWSKI 



disturbances, whereas the actual disturbance itself might have 

 as its proximate biochemical cause the altered chemistry of the 

 brain. 



Nevertheless, there is no basis for the claim put forward by 

 some, that all mental illnesses will some day prove to have 

 their origin in such chemical changes. It is well known that 

 a persistent emotional reaction with its attendant chemical 

 changes can bring about changes of a more permanent kind, 

 which in turn produce the variety of pathological behavior. 

 Even a moral stress can be the primary factor in the etiology 

 of an individual's mental aberrations. Some moral stresses 

 could conceivably be successfully countered in the shelter of 

 the mind for a time. But sooner or later such stresses would 

 bring in their wake emotional involvements with the conse- 

 quent alteration in the normal biochemistry of the individual. 

 More commonly, moral problems arise from patterns of activity 

 and emotional behavior at variance with a person's moral code. 

 Consequently, a daily involvement in such biochemical storms 

 could rightly be expected to result in more permanent chemical 

 changes. These changes would then be the molecular roots for 

 the abnormal mental symptoms. 



How then can a mental disease be reversed by psychotherapy, 

 if biochemical changes are the substrata of the disease.? One 

 likely answer is that psychotherapy removes, gradually per- 

 haps, the state of moral or emotional stress. Once these stresses 

 have been removed, the attendant biochemical changes should 

 reverse, unless relatively irreversible structural changes have 

 taken place, and general homeostatic mechanisms will tend to 

 restore normal biochemical functioning. 



It should be remembered that pharmacological treatment of 

 mental illness is more symptomatic than curative, unless the 

 primary cause of the illness happened to be a truly biochemical 

 disturbance. In this case a compound which will restore the 

 normal biochemical pattern will also remove the psychological 

 symptoms due to the abnormal chemistry. The use of phar- 

 macological agents in the immediate treatment of abnormal 



