Posted by pseudoname on February 1, 2006, at 13:01:07
In reply to Future of psychiatric medicine?, posted by jclint on January 31, 2006, at 13:46:42
Thanks for the article link.
> renaissance of interest in using psychedelics as a psychiatric tool
I recently got a lot of benefit for my treatment-resistant depression from a drug that's socially, legally, politically, and medically disdained (an opioid). Fortunately, some people were willing to take risks and endure criticism to develop it and do research. I'm all for doing research on anything that looks promising.
I've seen suggestions for LSD clinical use before, and I hope that at least *some* good research using these, as you say, extremely powerful chemicals (or their derivatives or micro-doses or whatever) will take place. As you also say, our present meds are inadequate.
But I personally would be disappointed if the research were simply to use LSD to look for yet more "secrets" in the "unconscious". That's not a new or original or promising approach. It seems to me actually a very narrow and completely Western idea. It's like an extractive mining industry: "These buried mental treasures must be brought out and dealt with by any means!" From the Guardian article, it sounds like that's the sort of Freudian research that was done in the past with LSD.
I know from my own recent experience that drugs CAN help psychotherapy a lot. But I think we have enough experience with psychoanalysis to know that it tantilizingly *promises* useful secrets but never delivers them, with or without drugs, not any time in the last 100 years. Even Freud decided the supposed "secrets" he uncovered weren't helpful in themselves but only in "working through" them. The thing is, more direct, effective working-through can be done every day by anyone, without any knowledge of the buried "origins" of his or her neurosis.
What would seem radical (and non-Western), to me, would be thinking, "There may or may not be such unconscious secrets controlling my feelings and behavior. I can live a good life without knowing the answer." Or even, "The answer cannot be known." Westerners really don't like that idea.
(Sorry, I'm not meaning to preach. This is a great thread, and I couldn't resist joining in.)
poster:pseudoname
thread:604844
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060129/msgs/605167.html