Second comment Re: Antidepressants: Happiness is only a drug?

From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Tue Mar 27 2001 - 16:30:18 MST


On reflection, though: there is a profound tendency to go for the sledgehammer, the quick fix. It is a truism in some
circles that therapy is intended to, at best, adapt the patient to a crazy world. Seems plausible to me; And _that_ does
indeed bother me.

However: if the primary purpose of a chemical quick fix is to stabilize a patient, and then really deal with matters, it
seems no less ethical than strapping a patient to a backboard and administering morphine while transporting, even when
the patient is in so much pain that they are crying to be killed.

Sometimes they _do_ thank you for it later.

> Hugo Alves wrote:
> I would be very happy if someone could prove me wrong, or explain this in another way, or do something to make this
> notion of happiness-as-a-mere-chemical go away. But it seems that people are treating the most delicate cases of
> unhapiness (the suicidal) with this notion of chemical disorder, which, I must say, doesn't look that much
> encouraging... I'm asking you to look at this as the transhumanists you strive to be, and not as the humane people you
> might be.



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