Jun 11, 2023·edited Jun 11, 2023Liked by Awais Aftab
Imagine if someone came out with a 'there is just one cause of all physical illness' theory today. They'd be laughed off the stage. ... This is an excellent review. I too found the brain energy idea intriguing, exciting really, when I first encountered it. Causal reductionism is very alluring indeed, even to those of us who might be expected to know better. It would be so awesome WERE it to be true, since it gets rids of complexity and is very encouraging re treatments. But, well, yes, we've seen it all before!
"There is yet another factor that drives my criticism. I see psychiatry as having stumbled from one “single message mythology” to another over the course of its history."
EXACTLY. You'd think this alone should give people pause...
I've published about my own game-changers: How I finally got a truly stable life situation with job security, financial security (was already lucky to have a stable and great marriage), and the various mental coping mechanisms I've developed myself. The former was really important for the latter, btw, because you need some stability in your life, so you're not constantly all stressed-out, to that kind of work.
I'm sure there were also physical effects in my mitochondria and what-not, but zooming in on THOSE would be like focusing on individual atoms and atomic physics rather than politics and WWII, to use the example from your talk yesterday. You'd lose sight of what really matters in this situation.
Imagine if someone came out with a 'there is just one cause of all physical illness' theory today. They'd be laughed off the stage. ... This is an excellent review. I too found the brain energy idea intriguing, exciting really, when I first encountered it. Causal reductionism is very alluring indeed, even to those of us who might be expected to know better. It would be so awesome WERE it to be true, since it gets rids of complexity and is very encouraging re treatments. But, well, yes, we've seen it all before!
"There is yet another factor that drives my criticism. I see psychiatry as having stumbled from one “single message mythology” to another over the course of its history."
EXACTLY. You'd think this alone should give people pause...
I've published about my own game-changers: How I finally got a truly stable life situation with job security, financial security (was already lucky to have a stable and great marriage), and the various mental coping mechanisms I've developed myself. The former was really important for the latter, btw, because you need some stability in your life, so you're not constantly all stressed-out, to that kind of work.
I'm sure there were also physical effects in my mitochondria and what-not, but zooming in on THOSE would be like focusing on individual atoms and atomic physics rather than politics and WWII, to use the example from your talk yesterday. You'd lose sight of what really matters in this situation.
Hang on a second ... aren't all mental disorders disorders of inflammation?