Re: Hemp

Holger Wagner (Holger.Wagner@lrz-muenchen.de)
Fri, 06 Feb 1998 23:53:55 +0100

Anders Sandberg wrote:
[...]
> We had an interesting discussion today at a course in biological
> psychology I attend about the effects of antidepressants like Prozac
> on depression compared to cognitive behavior therapy. It turns out
> that Prozac makes people feel better and gets them out of the
> depression, but they have a large probability of relapse. CBT on the
> other hand works even better and has a fairly good prognosis
> afterwards. The combination of CBT and Prozac isn't synergetic, it is
> just as good as CBT alone. On the other hand, Prozac can help people
> out from the really deep depression so that they can start with
> CBT. What makes the difference is that Prozac doesn't give you any
> strategies of keeping out of the depressive state, while CBT attempts
> to.

That's the thing about "genius chemicals" vs. set and setting: I don't
think any chemical substance, even a complex mixture of different
neurotransmitters can really help you achieve new insights. The only
thing chemicals can do is change the mood you're in, or even change the
way how your brain works - but not what kind of thoughts your brain
produces. That's what set and setting are all about...

For technologically changing "the kind of thoughts" your brain produces,
you probably need to stimulate the brain much more directly (like
inducing certain types of neurotransmitters in certain parts of the
brain - or finally connecting neurons to computers ;-) )

later,
Holger

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