I I didn’t know much about Soteria when I approached the entrance to Soteria’s home in Jerusalem. I had heard about the original Soteria project, an old house in California that housed people with mental illness, and was intended to be an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization. It was founded by Lauren Mosher, a psychiatrist from 1968 until 1980 when he served as director of the Schizophrenia Research Center at NIMH. He spent his career researching schizophrenia and advocating for psychosocial treatments that did not involve antipsychotics, and Soteria was the culmination of that effort. of his life’s work.
In the years it was in operation, Soteria House had great success in treating psychosis without the use of neuroleptic drugs. Perhaps because Soteria’s core principles were: be together This means not treating residents for their “illness” but being there for them and listening to them without judgement. Soteria’s staff, made up primarily of volunteers with no clinical experience, were there to attend to residents who had psychotic episodes and provide a safe space with no formal treatment plan in place. Even though Mosher and his colleagues were working with acutely insane individuals, they were able to create a primarily non-medical and non-professional environment, and by combining this alternative environment with behaviors such as: is completed. be together Perhaps a supportive community helped the residents heal.Despite Soteria’s success, Mosher ultimately quit APA Not long after NIMH unexpectedly put a stopper on his vision.
My first exposure to soteria was in a book by Robert Whittaker. trendy structure, the same book that would eventually lead me to the Jerusalem Soteria home. The book is mainly about the use of psychiatric drugs and how they can do more harm than good in the long run, and although it is a controversial proposition, it This is a proposition shared by a select few pioneers of psychiatry. Lauren Mosher.I picked up a copy of trendy structure I discovered this book at a used bookstore in my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, and it dramatically changed the way I view psychiatric drugs to this day. Over a year later, while visiting family in Israel, I was very surprised to find a Hebrew translation left on a park bench in Tel Aviv.
As I was flipping through the pages, I came across the name Pesach Lichtenberg, who wrote the preface to the Hebrew translation. I was curious about who this man was, so I looked it up on the Internet, and after a quick search, I found the following: article Connecting Lichtenberg with the opening of Israel’s first Soteria House in Jerusalem. Despite living in Israel for 5 years, I had no idea that one of the few operating Soteria Houses in the world was just a short train ride away.
The entrance to the Jerusalem Soteria house is a work of art. Colorful stained glass windows curve above grand iron gates, all part of a beautiful historic stone house in the heart of Israel’s capital. Only a handmade sign that reads “House of Soteria” in Hebrew indicates that the building is a mental health facility rather than a luxurious private residence.
As I stood looking at the entrance for a while, two Arab-Israeli men came through the door, talking and laughing in Arabic. Curious about their relationship with Soteria and struggling to think of a good question, I stopped them and simply asked, “Do you live here?” Then one of the men turned to the other, laughed, and said, “Of course!” Can’t you say we’re crazy? ” Probably a joke.
I had no intention of visiting Soteria’s house that day, nor did I have any plans to go there. In fact, I only heard about the place a few days ago and happened to be in the area. But I’m a curious person, so I knew I had to knock on the door. I will be leaving Israel in a few weeks and I will never have that opportunity again. When I rang the doorbell, I felt like I was visiting an old family home. Then a young woman came to the door. I explained why I was there, and as it turned out, I was a curious psychology student who wanted to know how Soteria House worked. She said it was the first time I had asked for something like that and that she wanted me to come in, but as a volunteer she didn’t have the authority to do so. I left the house with the phone number and texted him the same day. I explained in detail why I wanted to go to Soteria’s house, and within a few hours I received a very simple reply: “Do you want to come tomorrow?”
I had already returned to Tel Aviv, where I was staying, but immediately took the train to Jerusalem the next morning. After walking around the city for a few hours, I returned to Soteria’s house. This time, I knew I had a contact who would let me in. I rang the doorbell again and a young man answered the door. I asked for the name of the man I had been in touch with. And after spending a few minutes finding him, he came back to the front door to welcome me. The man I spoke to on the phone was there. He shook my hand and told me to relax. Then, being a busy person, I walked out the door and left.
It was surprisingly easy to get into the house. There was no security, no ID checks, and no one seriously questioned who I was. The environment felt very free. People were just hanging out and chatting, all the bedrooms were unlocked, doors wide open, and the decor reminded me of a hostel I once stayed in in Vienna. However, as I walked around the house, the stone walls and mosaic tiles on the floor sometimes made me feel like I was in an ancient temple, and I remembered that this is the center of a sacred place.
I sat on an old, worn-out, but surprisingly comfortable couch next to my old dog, who was fast asleep on the floor. There were multiple guitars attached to the wall in front of me. Below that is a piano keyboard surrounded by books and board games, and one of his IDF shirts on a hanger. The bookshelf was stocked with interesting books such as: Harry potter Robert Whittaker’s Hebrew translation trendy structure, an entire shelf is dedicated to religious Jewish texts.Next to the shelf was a bag containing the following items: tallit, a prayer shawl often worn by devout Jews. This house felt like a collection of things, but it never felt like a mental health facility.
The kitchen is attached to the main living area, and I immediately noticed a man cutting bright orange carrots. Knowing how strict traditional facilities are about sharp objects, I was surprised to see large, sharp kitchen knives in a place that houses people with acute mental illness. But what surprised me even more was that I saw a man cooking a real meal in a real kitchen with fresh ingredients and various Middle Eastern spices. I tried to strike up a conversation and asked him if he was a volunteer, to which he replied, “Yes. I don’t really understand anymore. ”
Admittedly, with a few exceptions, it’s surprisingly hard to tell who’s a volunteer and who’s a resident, and I was probably secretly wondering who the residents of the house were, which brings me to the point. I missed it. Unlike traditional psychiatric facilities, the distinction between “us” and “them” was never envisioned at Soteria; It was revealed. Israeli style salad.
As members of the group were eating lunch, I spoke with a man who said the group had recently returned from a multi-day excursion to the Negev desert. Hiking was one of the many group activities this house does together. As we were discussing his experience volunteering at home, I noticed he had a book by Lauren Mosher. Soteria: From Madness to Liberation in his hands. “I believe in this project,” he said. “That could be the future.”
Shortly after visiting Jerusalem Soteria’s home, I returned to the United States to complete my undergraduate studies in psychology. I wish I could learn more about the mysteries of schizophrenia. I had already heard a lot from my professor. Schizophrenia is an inherited degenerative brain disease thought to be caused by a dopamine imbalance, and few people recover from it. However, this condition can be managed as long as appropriate antipsychotic medications are used. I was told that second-generation antipsychotics don’t have the nasty side effects of older drugs and that I need to take them for the rest of my life to manage my illness. These are things I tended to believe, but Soteria challenged them all.
I would soon realize the unfortunate truth. The biological model of schizophrenia, which claims that dopamine dysfunction is the cause, lacks conclusive evidence to support it, and genetic studies have failed to identify the “schizophrenia gene,” leading to a new generation of Even antipsychotic drugs cannot treat it. It can worsen schizophrenia and even worsen the prognosis.
Perhaps psychiatry’s dedication to biomedical models of mental illness is the reason these myths persist. Alternative paradigms that view mental illness more holistically are not respected even if they lead to successful treatment models like Soteria. However, although a fundamental paradigm shift is unlikely to occur in the near future, hope for more humane treatments for schizophrenia is not lost. As of 2023, 18 Soteria Houses in operation This is an impressive growth rate considering that the first home in Jerusalem was established in 2016. Perhaps even more surprising is the full acceptance of the House of Soteria throughout the country. Soteria’s home is currently being funded by the Ministry of Health under the guise of “stabilization.” House”.
Achieving this did not require fundamental changes, nor did it require overturning the existing psychiatric system. In fact, as Jerusalem Soteria founder Pesach Lichtenberg details in his book, a major factor in Soteria’s success in Israel was the growing awareness of the abuses occurring in psychiatric facilities. . Articles from 2017. It is worth noting that radical alternative therapies like soteria can quickly gain traction in the right climate and thrive despite being at odds with mainstream psychiatry. His implementation of Soteria in Israel is truly an incredible feat, and if Lauren Mosher were alive today, she would be thrilled to witness the successful implementation of his life’s work.
