TB only occurs, of course, in the 'presence' of a bacillus; but its _causes_ Lewontin argued were social. I don't think one can assert a particular cause of mental illness --or even assert it exists: that remains to be clearly established. My symptoms certainly existed, but whether they constituted a definable "illness" or not remains to be established by future research. And Doug must have had his tongue in the corner of his mouth when he typed, "what about the possibility." That hardly gets us anyplace. The answer to such a suggestion is always the same, Sure, but who knows.
Carrol
On 6/16/2011 12:39 PM, Alan Rudy wrote: On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
On Jun 15, 2011, at 11:38 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
Fascinating article about mental illness and psychoactive drugs.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/?page=1
Yes. But what about the possibility that the rise in the frequency of mental illness is socially produced - by alienation and stress?
Doug
Not wholly dismissing the position in the article but... Come now, Doug... society reflects biology (impacted by commodified chemicals in this case) not the other way around! Yeesh, what have you been doing with your time, reading people like Lewontin? Communist. ;-)
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