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  %COMMUNAL DISEASES ADDICTION CODEPENDENCE MEDICAL+030907
%ISOLATED INDIVIDUALS MODEL INVASIVE BACTERIA VIRUS+030907
  %MOULDS PROTEZOA PRIONS IDEALS IDEAS VALUES GOALS+030907
%DOMINATION CONTROL COMMANDMENTS LAWS PRESCRIPTIONS+030907
%PROSCRIPTIONS SCRIPTURE ALIENATION EXCOMMUNICATION+030907
%GOOD DEVIL PEOPLE DYSFUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS PRAY 030907
                                                          
     The medical model of individual persons' diseases has
pretty much replaced ancient models based upon gods in the
heavenly realms sending punishments and demons.     In the
medical model micro organisms  (bacteria,  viri, protezoa,
moulds,  prions,  etc.)  get inside people's bodies,  live
there,  eat there,  undergo metamorphosis there, reproduce
there,   produce  waste  products,  and  make  their  host
organisms sick.                                           
                                                          
     The  micro organism medical model cannot account  for
and/or mitigate most mental illnesses, most addictions, or
the roles roles played by codependent  supporters  in most
addictions.  Such diseases need to   be worked on in terms
which   give  due  consideration  to  DYSFUNCTIONAL  HUMAN
RELATIONSHIPS  ideals,   values,  principles,   attitudes,
intentions,   motivations  and  desires ---  in  order  to
account for and mitigate the dis eases of individual human
beings.                                                   
                                                          
     In  her book "When Society Becomes an  Addict"   Anne
Wilson  Schaef called attention to the possibility that  a
community of persons can be regarded as an organism  which
behaves much as an individual person behaves ---  when the
individual person becomes an addict.   Just as in the case
of individuals'  micro organism  diseases ---   which  are
addressed by the medical model ---  so also she  suggested
that addiction as a dis eased behavior pattern may  spread
into the community as a whole.  To understand the dis ease
of  the  community, it may  be  essential  to  take   into
consideration the whole community as an organism which can
be  infected  with   dysfunctional thoughts behaviors etc.
which are associated with addiction/codependence.         
                                                          
     In  how many other ways can communities  become  dis-
eased and require  community wide wholistic considerations
--- in  order  to  deal  with  dysfunctional  patterns  of
communal thought,   decision making  and  action?    What 
diseases affect whole  communities  in ways which have NOT
been   adequately  dealt  with  by  traditional  ways   of
addressing dis ease?    What might be some of the symptoms
of  such  communal diseases  in  addition  to individuals'
addiction   connected   to   individuals'    codependence?
Consider a few possibilities:                             
                                                          
1.  War/Terrorism         2.  Prostitution 3.  Pornography
                                                          
4.  Population Explosion  5.  AIDS Plague  6.  Poverty    
                                                          
7.  Nationalism           8.  Intolerance  9.  Prejudices 
                                                          
    Of  course the list could be extended.   There  is  no
point in being contentious about just how to point to such
possible communal diseases.   The point here is that there
might  exist  such  COMMUNAL DISEASES  which   we ---   as
individualistically  oriented people ---  have  failed  to
deal with in truly functional ways --- because we have not
been alert to the possibility that COMMUNAL DISEASES might
exist and evade treatment --- because we have been unaware
of  the nature of  the diseases,  and so unaware  of  what
needs to  be done to deal  with  them  effectively.  Early
alchemists/chemists could not  conceive of the possibility
of diseases caused by micro organisms,  and tried to think
of diseases in alchemists/chemists' terms.  We may need to
widen  our scope of vision to understand how to deal  with
communal dis ease and communal diseases of communities  as
whole organisms.                                          
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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