One of the things the scientific method has done to us is that it has conditioned us to think in prescribed ways, largely based on empirical evidence of cause and effect which leads us to seek categories of states and a presumed standard biochemical basis to treat those categories.

The mind ... I use the term mind vs brain to steer away from it as an object ... is much more complex than that. It's states are probably not as discreet as science would want them to be. So, continuum is probably more realistic way of viewing states that be one problematic for individuals and society.

Yes, society! Let's not forget that there is a whole field of social psychology that attempts to understand states of masses of people using psychological approaches.

Makes me wonder, how many dysfunctional states are self-perpetuating and self-reenforcing. The extent to which we see a range of behaviors or continuum.

The question seems to come, how does one break these cycles of dysfunctional states, either in individuals or societies. The soukutiin would seem to be to fundamentally alter the state so that it realigns to a more harmonious one. Whether this be done internally, as in cultivation in an eastern sense, or externally by imposing a set of treatments that alter or reset the state of mind, such approaches might be more helpful.

In any event, the permutations of mind are as many as there are minds. Scientific categorization have not been very successful.