Posted by Edwin Ransom on December 4, 2006, at 17:29:38
In reply to Re: Why your medicine may not help » linkadge, posted by zmg on December 4, 2006, at 16:53:49
Vale said “The hypothesis that depressive states are an adaptive strategy having evolved over the entire evolution of mankind holds largely true in my opinion( Please note I am entitled to an opion here) “
You’re entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. Even if evolution selects for depression-susceptible personalities that doesn’t mean that depression can’t be treated pharmacologically. That’s like saying that vasectomies can’t work because evolution selects for fertility.
Linkadge said “if your hand gets burned. Its not that the pain you feel is somehow abnormal. It helps you learn.” I could make the same kind of overgeneralized analogy in favor of the pharmacological approach and say “depression is like a situation where your hand feels like its burning when its not.’ There’s just nothing to learn, all you can do is try to find a way to stop feeling the burning sensation.”
I am sympathetic to the adaptive theory of depression, but not in the form that you two seem to be presenting.
Then zzm said “ I always preferred the 'depression is a luxury of the rich' scenario. Not meaning that depression isn't real or valid, but something that first-world countries will face increasingly as economics become more abstracted, leaving increased opportunity to focus on more esoteric and qualitative aspects of our lives.”
This could be so. But isn’t it just as likely that depression is more common in the 1st world because the 1st world has adopted values and attitudes towards living that make it hard to be happy? Maybe the egoistic focus of modern life leaves something out that the 3rd world still has. I don’t know myself, but I think it’s at least as reasonable as anything anyone has said in this thread.
poster:Edwin Ransom
thread:710350
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061129/msgs/710376.html