Posted by SLS on September 20, 2006, at 7:24:53
In reply to Re: the brain, posted by alexandra_k on September 20, 2006, at 6:03:30
> If you want to teach someone to cook you are better off showing them how than trying to manipulate their brain directly...
...Unless they aren't eating for lack of appetite or for kindled reinforcement of anorectic behavior.
> And if you want to teach someone to manage anxiety / depression etc therapy does something that direct manipulation of their brain is unable to do at present....Unless each of these occur as the result of the defects in neural circuitry and intracellular machinery now demonstrated with the aid of modern technology. Direct manipulation of the central nervous system is sometimes the only way in which to treat a particular mental illness; one that is a disorder of the brain. Who would argue the biological underpinnings of the severe psychotic episode of bipolar disorder? Who could then deny that the paroxysmal switch into severe depression were not equally biological? Afterall, it is merely the antipodal phase of the same biological disorder. Is the depression of bipolar disorder, then, not biological? Is the depression of bipolar disorder the only depression that is biological?
I think it helps to remain open to recognize the wide array of human conditions that can produce similar behavioral outcomes.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:686603
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060919/msgs/687615.html