Re: Antidepressants: Happiness is only a drug?

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Wed Mar 28 2001 - 16:38:24 MST


Anders Sandberg, being generous with his valuable time writes,
> At least not any drugs we know of... hmm, actually I seem to recall
> that morphine can replace longing for social success. I don't have my
> copy of Pankseep's _Affective Neuroscience_ handy, but he makes a
> strong link between the opiate systems in the brain and social
> fulfilment.

Does morphine really replace longing for social success, or displace it with
drug induced euphoria.

> Csikszentmihalyi points out in _Finding Flow_ that most people report
> maximal happiness just when they are among friends. Often much higher
> than when they do other enjoyable activities. We are deeply social
> animals.

Right, even drug addicts crave social interaction.

> True happiness is likely not just a high serotonin level (that tends
> to make you serene or dulled, depending on the situation) or opiate
> levels (more like direct pleasure?). I would suggest looking for it in
> the feedback loops from the frontal lobe/basal ganglia on the midbrain
> dopamine system, where we re-program our own values. But that is just
> a personal guess.

Hmm.. does that imply the possibility of re-programming luddite values.

Hey, anything to make them happy!

τΏτ

Stay hungry, stay happy,

--J. R.

Useless hypotheses:
 consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia



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