Posted by Chairman_MAO on June 3, 2004, at 21:51:48
In reply to Re: There is something wrong with these children, posted by zeugma on June 3, 2004, at 18:06:11
The interest in spect scans was in re: linkadge's last post (although he said MRI, but I believe what he meant was SPECT, or fMRI).
I empathize with you, as I've always felt all my life that my CNS is broken. My life story is 99.44% the classic "inattentive ADD" life story. Without something like stimulants or desipramine--which thank God I stumbled upon because I'm now politically prohibited from taking stimulants due to a past drug problem--I cannot even come close to actualizing myself. There are psychological factors involved in my ADD strife as well, e.g. my lack of concentration becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. I do not understand why everyone seems to think that my position is untenable if I recognize that these disorders exist.
I feel you are "explaining away" the existence of mind. You are no doubt aware of the philosophical distinction between mind and brain; you probably know a hell of a lot more about philosophy of science than I do, anyway. There are correlates between mind and brain, but ultimately we do not live in the brain, we live in the mind. Moreover, one can make a cogent argument that we do not possess the epistemic tools necessary to apprehend the mind-brain link and bridge the so-called "explanatory gap".
Psychiatry means "healing the soul". I do not understand how a discipline that heals the soul could ever be considered part of neurobiology. No psychiatric disorder exists in a biological vacuum: Patients with major depression with successful antidepressant outcomes and those with successful psychotherapy outcomes are known to undergo the same neural changes. Are you sure all that's at work here in your suffering and recovery are the medications? Believe me, I am all too aware of how seductive it is to look for an explanation for one's suffering in neurotransmitters and receptors. There is obviously a neurobiological substrate to it; there is a neurobiological substrate to all consciousness! Saying that one's suffering is wholly rooted in neurobiology is, in my view, just as mistaken as those counselors who kept steering you away from it, for there is always mind, and there is always brain.
poster:Chairman_MAO
thread:353129
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040602/msgs/353563.html