Man in his strife-ridden life in the materialistic world of today requires a mentor, a counselor, and a patient listener. The Western people seek professional help, while the Indians find peace and guidance from spiritual gurus. For helping the fellow man/woman emotionally, it is not just the treatment that is required but also good listening skills, empathy and wisdom. Add to this, the aura of mystique and faith and you have a winning combination for curing all psychosomatic disorders. India has known this truth, since times immemorial. And, we as a nation, would enjoy even better mental health, if most of these gurus could be more professionally trained or alternatively, if we shed the diffidence in seeking the help of a professional.

When the Beatles visited the US for the first time, the crowd was going berserk to catch a glimpse of the group that was more popular than Jesus (sic). The Beatles looked around and breathed "So this is America. They all seem mad."

When an average Indian thinks about the US—to a large number of our countrymen, the US is synonymous with the developed countries of the world—he thinks of them as `Inscrutable Americans.' There is a marked dichotomy in our perception. On one hand, the mind conjures up images of a wonderfully developed country and confident people. On the other hand, we can only think of them as an excessively permissive society, lacking moral values and social moorings. We self-righteously dismiss them in the same words of the Beatle assessment. Statistics back up our belief. There were 40,867 clinically active psychiatrists in the US in 2000, according to the AMA data. At the other extreme are we Indians, where the total number of trained psychiatrists in India is less than 1000. And, if we recall the laws of supply and demand, we condescendingly conclude that more Americans (and other white races) need psychiatric help than we do in India. We congratulate ourselves on the family and social support system that helps in the holistic development of the child and makes balanced adults, high on emotional and spirituality quotient.

People with advanced mental illnesses of course go to mental asylums, and therapeutic centers (In India, in most cases, we simply put them in jail for want of better options). But why does an average westerner with no discernible mental illness go to a psychiatrist or a counselor? According to James H Scully, MD and Joshua E Wilk, "On an average a psychiatrist sees 41 patients in a week" (data for 2002).

People seek professional help for maladjustments, stress, emotional upheavals, anxiety, guilt, low self worth and lack of confidence. In an interview with Britain's Radio Times Magazine, the former Beatle, Paul McCartney, said he had sought solace in writing music, but had been helped by professional psychiatric counseling. "It is not a bad idea to have someone to talk to. Its normally over family matters." McCartney said.

HRM Review Magazine, Mental Distress, Psychosomatic Disorders, Universal Phenomenon, Global Following, Scriptural Tradition, Social Support System, Social Moorings, Holistic Development.