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Are there problems we shouldn't try to solve? A village in Belgium where people with severe mental illness live freely with host families — no treatment, no institution, just community integration. Challenges the assumption that every problem needs a 'fix.'
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Canon
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Miller: Geel's success illustrates a broader principle: changing the environment around a person is often more effective than trying to change the person. Addiction, mental illness, and disability outcomes are heavily influenced by social context, not just individual pathology.
Highlights
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The medicalization of difference — treating variation as pathology can cause more harm than the condition itself
Miller: in Geel, Belgium, people with severe mental illness have lived freely with host families for 700 years. They're not 'treated' — they're simply included. The outcomes rival or exceed institutional care, raising the question: is the 'problem' the condition or the social response to it?Was this useful?