Posted by SLS on September 20, 2006, at 22:46:26
In reply to Re: the brain » SLS, posted by alexandra_k on September 20, 2006, at 20:41:42
> > > 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.> People with anorexia don't have a lack of appetite they restrict their eating for other reasons.
You rushed your reading of me. There were two separate conditions depicted.
> - Rates of anorexia are highest where women have been most exposed to the western ideal of body weight. (Cross cultural prevalence)
> - Rates of anorexia climb where cultures become more exposed to the western ideal of body weight (e.g., in Fiji, children of immigrants from Pakistan living in the UK)I do not argue the cultural biases and psychosocial stresses that contribute to the onset of anorexia nervosa. I think much of the condition is driven by a desire to have control over some aspect of one's life, too. There's something else going on there, though. I am not well read on the topic, and I have not devoted much time thinking about it, but I think there might be an OCD type 5-HT/NE balance type thing going on or a reward-conditioning thing that's hard to break. I don't know.
I don't know why it has to be all one way or all the other. Polarized thinking is bound to be counterproductive when it comes to mental illnesses.
> > > 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.
> But therapy and changes to society (environment) result in changes to the neural circuitry and intracellular machinery.YES!
> > 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.
> I disagree (see my last remark).They are not mutually exclusive. Again, polarized thinking. Think multidimensionally! Think both ways simultaneously.
"The brain determines the mind as the mind sculpts the brain."
> > I think it helps to remain open to recognize the wide array of human conditions that can produce similar behavioral outcomes.
> Indeed.
>
> Hence inter-level interventions instead of a uni-level intervention.
>
> Hence the biopsychosocial model instead of a biobiobio model.You don't seem to know me or my writing well enough. Stick around.
;-)
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:686603
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060919/msgs/687801.html