Few people today know where the concept of mental illness began in history. Fewer still understand the philosophical beliefs necessary to sustain the current construct. This session will discuss these foundational issues, study the key figures responsible for creating today’s mental health system, and in the process will equip attendees with discernment to understand how secular theorists and much of American culture now determine who is normal and who is abnormal. Who gets to buy a gun and who doesn’t, is Johnny mentally ill or is he just misbehaving, is transgenderism a mental illness because of dysphoria or because it is a delusion, and is drinking coffee a mental illness or just something you greatly enjoy?