One day after the terrible plane crash in the French Alps it was announced that technical problems were not the reason for the accident. The co-pilot deliberately let the aircraft crash, while the other pilot could not enter the cockpit. This successful suicide attempt also resulted in the death of 150 other individuals with bright futures ahead. A bright future that Andreas Lubitz probably did not see anymore. Questions how this could be prevented are raised, with a probable answer stating that this can not prevent this. There will always be persons with mental issues suddenly deciding to commit a devastating act. I agree with this statement, they will always be there, but I think however that their number could be reduced through better and more meaningful communication, something that is lacking in our society nowadays.
First of all, there seems to be a taboo on speaking about problems, admitting them and seeking professional help, Speaking about mental problems, depressions and negative emotions feels as showing weakness, where society expects you to keep your back straight. This is especially true for men. (I don't think it's a coincidence that most of the so called 'lone wolfs' are men). Communication fails on multiple levels, even with the persons most close to you, your friends and family. Who doesn't remember answering questions like 'How are you?' with 'I'm fine', while in fact you feel very bad. Most parents and close friends accept these answer and don't dig for the real problems. It would be very hard to change these interpersonal relations and I don't have a direct solution for it, except from trying to ask further. However, a place where a lot of progress can be made with on the one hand discovering problems and on the other hand giving tools for preventing problems and better personal communication is our education system.
Discovering mental problems could be done with school psychologists. The psychological guidance that pupils receive now, at least in the Netherlands, is a biannual talk with your mentor/tutor with your grades as main topic. This is by far not enough to give the right guidance and help. A biannual session with the school psychologist, trained for discovering problems, would work better with extra sessions on request or if the psychologist sees the need for this. This could also help in the fight against bullying, which will sadly always exist on schools.
While the school psychologist tries to let students speak about their problems, classes should be organised to let pupils handle problems better themselves and train them to communicate better about them. Apart from teaching children math, geography and German, schools should also classes about personal development. Basic psychological knowledge, presentation skills, how to set personal goals etc. Considering mental problems classes about the technology of thought would be great. How to deal with problems? How to think in a positive way? How to deal with loss and rejection? These things are usually learned through life experience and personal interest, while they could be life changing if taught in an earlier stage. If we teach kids how to deal better with 'life', teaching them that they fully control it, admitting problems and seeking help would be natural responses.
In other words, schools should focus more on personal development and not only on knowledge in order to create fully equipped graduates ready to conquer the world. Hopefully, through this new way of education, we could prevent more accident such as the one in the French Alps. Maybe it is wishful thinking, but teaching kids better how to take on (mental) problems will only be beneficial.
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