culture and illness

Carrol Cox cbcox at mail.ilstu.edu
Fri Dec 18 20:56:46 PST 1998


Someone in a recent post criticizing the 12 step programs (which I too tend to dislike) protested that they treat the symptoms, not the underlying problem. Now it is true that some "alcoholics" are in fact "self-treating depressives" (there are of course many other combinations), and 12 step programs do ignore this. I know of alcoholics who became (safely) occasional drinkers after bringing depression under control.

BUT we should beware of kneejerk objections to treating the symptoms. There are innumerable diseases (including mine, depression) which simply can't be cured -- all that can be done is to treat the symptoms. Diabetes is a famous example of an illness which can be controlled but not cured.

Social conditions are an element, a large element, in a large number of illnesses, but (1) those social conditions are going to be with us for a long time (that's why we are marxists), (2) so in the meantime a "medical" approach is the only possible approach, and we need to fight for the right of all sufferers to the best possible treatment, and (3) even in that socialist world which none of us will ever see there will almost certainly remain many organic conditions which will not be "curable," for which the symptoms will have to be treated. By "organic" illnesses I mean any illness, whether labelled "physiological" or "psychological." The distinction is unreal.

I doubt that socialism will eliminate schizophrenia, though it should create a world in which the schizophrenic will more easily live his/her life. The daughter of a close friend is a schizophrenic living on her own -- and getting along pretty well in some ways. In a socialist world she perhaps would be less in danger of an occasional assault. She would have friendlier neighbors who would keep a better (invisible and non-invasive) eye on her. But she would still be a schizophrenic, and there would still be a strong possbility that her life would end as her sister's had: in suicide. The sister was also schizophrenic.

Carrol



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