RE: Psychiatry: Moving From Ice Pick Lobotomies and Chains Into a Brighter Future
Finally, at the age of ninety, Giovanna was released
That's astonishing. I guess the proponents of 'fasting for longevity' have got a point, assuming that's one of the things Giovanna had to undergo!
Overall a very fair (and readable, and really not at all as long as it looks) post.
I feel some of the criticisms directed against psychiatry could easily be directed against many branches or instances of regular medicine: treating symptoms rather than causes? Check! Without biomarkers psychiatry lacks objective validity? How about the fact that what's a normal level of x vitamin is determined by the mean in the population, and hence changes every decade? Sperm count is now much lower than it used to be, and the current normal value used to be considered low. All over the world sperm count is dropping, so the healthy level needs to be recalibrated. Obesity rises so the healthy weight value needs to be increased. Not to mention that each person is different and what's a high cholesterol level for one, might be a normal level for another. So I think medicine in general has a long way to go, not just psychiatry.
Grief is one example often given to illustrate this point. The question is asked, how is a "normal", reasonable, response to loss distinguished from a pathological depression?
Well it depends. If it's Hachiko they raise a statue to it. If it's a modern person in Europe and he grieves the loss of his parent for longer than 3 months, he's given pills. Quite inconsistent. In one of Abigail's last posts I asked how a psychologist would treat a person who came in and was obsessed with his discovery that people can grow old, that they can become sick, and that they can die. I wondered if the psychologist would medicate the Buddha away. I think the person who thinks we should just accept sickness and death, is the really crazy person who should be hospitalized. The only sane ones in this case are the futurists: that's the proper response to those visions, and the only reason the Buddha didn't go there was because the option wasn't available to him.
Reading the (sad and extraordinary) article about Howard Dully, I wonder whether his young age was exactly the thing that saved him. At such a young age perhaps his brain was still plastic enough to heal itself, allowing him to circumnavigate some of the disability the operation might've caused.
PS: What's the asapers tag mean?
Well, first of all, you have to know you were partly responsible for this blog. I've been reading so many references because of your posts that I got caught up in the subject.
I agree medicine is culturally biased. It's just marginally better than psychiatry. One of my blogs, about diagnosing lupus, shows how subjective many branches of medicine can be.
I agree about Dully. However, what I didn't include ( how long can a blog be, after all) was that as a young man he was in and out of detention. Settled down later in life but early on had a hard time of it.
Thanks for the feedback and subjecting yourself to a long read. The blog took about a week to put together--so much information. I had to discipline myself. There was a time I was writing books, before Steemit. When I've found my stride here, I'll probably go back to it. I do love research and getting into a subject.
Rereading your comment--a part I didn't respond to: One of most influential writers of my youth was Miguel de Unamuno. If you are not familiar with him, he wrote a long, long essay called the Tragic Sense of Life(translated). He addresses your point, about the Buddha and awareness. While Unamuno is considered to be an existentialist, a "modern" thinker, he really starts at the same place that led to Buddha's awakening. I've no doubt many a psychiatrist would have viewed the despair of Unamuno and Buddha as pathological. But these men just had the courage to look into the abyss and come out with a way to go on.
I don't have great insight into "mental illness"--I do think throughout history it has mostly been normative, and also used for political and social coercion. But there are people tortured by a brain that is affected by a disease process. Right now we can't help those people, because we don't understand the process. Maybe the tools of science can change that.
I only know him by name; never read him. I'll check him out. 👍
Asapers is a curation project that tries to support undervalued posts. They spotted one of my posts a few months ago and I think they help bloggers to get a foothold. This is not a group with a lot of power--yet--but they definitely exude a positive tone. So I always include them. https://steemit.com/steemit/@hitmeasap/the-story-behind-project-asapers-and-why-i-decided-to-go-for-it