Does Torah Cure Mental Illness?

My answer: it can help, it can make it worse. When 'it' makes it worse, it's because the wrong Torah is being applied. Some people look at Torah like a magic potion- sprinkle any of it on anything and all will be good. Just study Tosfos and all your problems will go away.

But Torah is rational. We have forgotten this. Knowing which Torah to employ is Torah too.

A paranoid person will not do well to hear about segulot or divine punishments. An egotist will not do well to hear that 'everything is for the Jews' or 'everything is because of the Jews.' An irrational person will not do well to hear 'chassidish maasot.'

You have to pick the stuff that works. It will not all work just because it's Torah.

Generally, a proper Torah life will help mental health. By proper I mean balanced as in Hirschian or Maimanidean, not as in extremist. You get these guys that go off the derech crazy and people start prescribing Gemara for them. Take Shalom Auslander. He needed a woman and a writing career, not a black hat and an Israeli Gemara yeshiva.

Most people who suffer mental illness need calm and stability. Thus, kollel is not a good choice for most. They need a satisfying job, decent living quarters, a spouse. They don't need hate speech, raging polemics, and xenophobia. They need to feel good about kelal Yisrael, R' Miller can help promote good feelings about the ancestors, but he's not so good for good feelings about all parts of contemporary Jewry. So for that go to Chovovei Torah maybe or one of the Open Orthodoxy groups.

The abused child doesn't need to hear rigid positions about civud av v'aim. Rather, let them hear the heterim relieving them from it. R' David Cohen has a great speech about that.

All this applies to teshuva too. There are all kinds of different approaches. For example, positive approach or negative? Sometimes a mix is good. A person might speak lashon hara out of jealousy. Cure could be to understand the damage LH causes. Cure could be to understand the lack of faith involved in jealousy. Cure could be simply to recognize that one is feeling jealous. Cure could be to list out all of ones blessings and see the hardships others who seem to be doing well are enduring. Cure could be to enjoy life more, to have fun, and celebrate one's accomplishments. Cure could be a mix. Depends on the person and the day. You have to figure out which one works.

It is easy to project one's illness onto Torah. The compulsive person gets overly punctilious about mitzvot. The angry person becomes a dangerous canoi. The fearful person gets overwhelmed with fears of going to hell. It all seems like holy behavior until you realize you are losing your mind. As the pop band Blondie sang: "Once I had a love and it was divine. Soon found out I was losing my mind."

So who knows which pieces you should apply? No easy answer. Sometimes you know. Sometimes other people know. God will help you to get the right answers.