Radio Doug

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sat Mar 29 14:39:21 PST 2003


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> At 2:34 PM -0500 3/29/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >And I'll add that it's, um, interesting that someone who so
> >frequently talks about his long battle with severe depression is so
> >hostile to any kind of psychoanalysis or even introspection. Much
> >more comforting to blame biochemistry; otherwise, you never know
> >what you might find within.
>
> You can't manage a chronic illness, be it a "mental" illness or
> otherwise, by blaming yourself. Especially if you are clinically
> depressed, that's probably the last thing that you should do.
> --
> Yoshie

It's not very productive to blame anyone or anything. Thoughts & experiences make physical changes in the brain. Doug seems not even to be aware of what neuropsychiatry and neurology are about, let alone any current research in those fields. As far as I know "biochemistry" does not "cause" mental illness, but no mental illness (or mental health) exists independently of brain chemistry.

Carrol



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