12.31.07
If Drugs Were Good
Even if treating psychiatric symptoms with drugs were finally and unequivocally proved to be effective (which it has not even come close to), the question of whether it is ethically right to do so would still be problematic.
The easiest way is not always the best way, especially when dealing with such a complex system as a human persona in the web of its societal interactions. Very few people actually go to a psychiatrist “to fix the flat tire”, that is with only one specific easily fixable symptom in mind. And even when they do seem to have only one symptom, in the course of therapy the picture may prove to be more complicated.
12.28.07
Pharmacology Is Our Savior
Pharmaceutical companies rule the economy and shape the medical practice – this is not even a point of discussion. In the modern economic world, it has been suggested, the balance of supply and demand no longer concerns anyone; nowadays you create and boost the demand for your product yourself, and then enjoy the growing sales. If it means inventing new diseases and then convincing the previously healthy people that they are in fact sick and in need of a medication, it is done without a minute’s doubt.
However, it would probably be too simplistic Read the rest of this entry »
Religion and the ANS
The problem with the psychedelic revolution of the sixties was that the mind-altering drugs were used by too many people who knew too little about them. In history, this had never been the case. The psychedelic substances were used by every tribe and nation, but they were always tightly controlled by shamans, priests and the like. Only those people who were able to make sense of their psychedelic experiences and resist the overuse temptation were allowed to have access to the drugs, and the rest of the people used it only once in a great while, and in a very carefully arranged ritual context.
The fact that the natural substances of different kinds have the corresponding receptors in the human organism to realize their powerful mind-body-altering effects makes me believe that those substances have been highly interconnected with human beings in the course of evolution. In this light, our last 50 or so years of severe “drug restriction diet” may well be a tragic accident, the consequences of which we have yet to endure in its fullest. Read the rest of this entry »
12.26.07
Books I Read
In my search for information about psychiatry, I am fortunate to have stumbled upon several very good books on the subject. When something as controversial as psychiatry critique is concerned, it is very difficult for authors on either side of the barricades to maintain a balanced and scientifically detached approach to the question. There are quite a few web-sites, brochures and books criticizing current psychiatry practices, but many of them are just as pretentious as the mainstream psychiatric propaganda, displaying the same excessive affect and unquestioned belief that their theory is right and their opponents are just a bunch of fools (corrupt fools, it is sometimes added).
