Become New with John Ortberg Why Mental Health Isn't Enough
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Oct 27, 2025 The discussion dives into the importance of mental health but highlights that it shouldn't be life's ultimate goal. It challenges listeners to consider the limitations of mental health as simply feeling good. The talk emphasizes love as the highest aim, contrasting it with the pursuit of happiness. John explores the biblical concept of shalom, suggesting that true well-being encompasses caring for others. He warns against prioritizing comfort over love, urging a commitment to vulnerability, even if it brings pain.
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Mental Health Is Not The Only Lens
- Mental health conversation is positive and destigmatizing, but it can become the only lens we use to judge life.
- Reducing all moral and ethical questions to mental-health categories shrinks our understanding of human flourishing.
Therapy Can't Set Moral Truths
- Moving from psychology to questions about how to live inevitably enters ethics and values, which therapy alone cannot settle.
- Clinical authority can unintentionally claim moral ground beyond its expertise and skirt philosophical debate.
Mumford's Therapy Questioned Values
- John recounts James Mumford's inpatient therapy experience with acceptance and commitment therapy.
- Mumford noticed his therapist implied values were entirely subjective and was brushed off when he questioned it.
