There is a recent [February 11, 2026] essay in The New York Times, What Kennedy Doesn’t Understand About Schizophrenia, stating that, “I was thinking of those brokenhearted parents when I saw a clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, claiming that a doctor “up at Harvard has cured schizophrenia using keto diets.” (A ketogenic diet, which has been used to help children with epilepsy, is one that is heavy in fats and low in carbs and protein.) He added that he’s seen studies about how people lose their bipolar diagnoses by changing what they eat.”
“A woman in this group said to me: “When it’s mental health or drugs, there’s always somebody who wants to tell you, ‘Just solve it.’ And there’s always an implication that you didn’t do that, you didn’t try hard enough.” In a Times Opinion guest essay published in January, Madeline Till, a psychotherapist, described once wishing that her child with schizophrenia had cancer instead, because there would be real sympathy and support for both of them — a social script for strangers to turn to, for example.”
Schizophrenia and the Brain
What exactly is schizophrenia like in the brain? This is a question about architecture. What are all the differences in the brain in the episodes of schizophrenia?
There are often answers about the pathology of schizophrenia, including genetic, environmental, brain chemistry, and substance use. There are also clear symptoms like avolition or amotivation, which is the inability to start and maintain goal-directed activities. There is also anosognosia, which is a lack of awareness about one’s [mental] health.
However, when there is no mental disorder, what is the balance obtainable in the brain, different from when there is one? Simply, there are several possible biological factors in the brain across states, but which ones are the most likely to map, for operations of stability and instability?
The problem of mental illness, where social workers are confused, law enforcement may seem uncertain, and then caregivers may also want to quickly treat and release, could also be a problem of not knowing what a mental illness is, in the brain, to at least have a description of what has gone wrong, or an intensity level.
What should be the most important and sole focus of the American Psychiatric Association, for now, is to explore how to find components in the brain, with which to explain mental disorders. The Human Genome is already mapped, but genes are not the human mind and cannot explain the brain, for models of navigating the world.
So, the options after genes are neurons. But neurons are cells. They are not flexible enough to organize the numerous amounts of information that the brain processes. Still, their ubiquity in all functions keeps the search around them. So, the next options are electrical and chemical signals.
This is the postulation in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology.
The debate about what schizophrenia is or isn’t, or what it consists of, or when an individual qualifies for a M-1 hold, should be weakened if explanations of conditions are possible by electrical and chemical signals.
The pursuit of biomarkers as well would get a better pathway with an explanation by signals.
When ketogenic diets have some mild effects, it is possible to postulate that they have an effect on signals. However, the debate on what schizophrenia is or is not, or what the science says, is not even a thing about labels. But about what is happening in the brain and how to describe parallels of it.
The American Psychiatric Association should be on a relentless search for how to explain mental disorders by components in the brain. This will do a lot more than sticking with labels and leaving confusion, helplessness, and despair everywhere.
It is also possible to explore making this description digital and automated enough with large language models [LLMs]. The future of what is possible is simply beyond labels for schizophrenia.
There is a recent [February 2, 2026] press release, Secretary Kennedy Announces $100 Million Investment in Great American Recovery, stating that: “Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today announced a comprehensive plan to strengthen prevention, expand treatment, and carry out the executive order President Trump signed last week to ignite the Great American Recovery. The centerpiece of this plan is a $100 million investment to solve long-standing homelessness issues, fight opioid addiction, and improve public safety by expanding treatment that emphasizes recovery and self-sufficiency.”
“The Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports — or STREETS — Initiative will fund targeted outreach, psychiatric care, medical stabilization and crisis intervention, while connecting Americans experiencing homelessness and addiction to stable housing with a clear focus on long-term recovery and independence.”
This article was written for WHN by David Stephen, who currently does research in conceptual brain science with a focus on the electrical and chemical signals for how they mechanize the human mind, with implications for mental health, disorders, neurotechnology, consciousness, learning, artificial intelligence, and nurture. He was a visiting scholar in medical entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. He did computer vision research at Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona.
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