Posted by unbottled on October 16, 2007, at 12:41:32
In reply to Re: Designing drugs » unbottled, posted by Squiggles on October 16, 2007, at 9:15:39
> > Only his psychiatrist knows for sure.
>
> I'm not sure they know anything for sure. :-)Joking aside, you've answered your own
question well - you believe that you start with
something. I think that myself, even though
there could be different opinions of "you"
according to what drug you're on, whether your
father was a tyrant, how long ago, etc. etc.At least we're not worrying about whether there's
anyone else out there. Yet. %^)Walt Kelly used to joke about Soviet propaganda
that "you must word the question so as not to
spoil the answer". Philosophy tends to do
the opposite: it puts questions to us so clearly
and pointedly that an answer requires footwork
that's likely (and sometimes is calculated)
to make you stumble.Anyway, thanks.
> > > Words are static
> >
> > Descriptions, per se, are wrong, for that reason.
> > The "live" thing being described is always so much
> > more complex. etc.
>
> Yes, i think that words act like signs or
> postings; in philosophy they call that
> "referential" use of language. So, when
> you call "depression" a chemical imbalance,
> the meaning of the word "depression" is
> a pointer to the corresponding physical state.
> But you can also call something "depression"
> when what you mean is the symptoms observed,
> in comparison to what the person used to be.
> Of course, it could be both and more, like
> circumstances. So, imagine how far more
> ambiguous the reference for the word "personality" must be. It actually refers
> to a history.
>
>
>
> >
> > What exactly is underbeneath of the drugs, begs
> > the question. Because (an extreme example) isn't
> > the deformation that your childhood consisted of
> > a kind of "foreign" addition to whatever you
> > started with? Isn't everything?
>
> I suppose, if i understand you correctly. I would like to make a distinction between
> temperament and personality. Because you
> may be born with a genetically or embryonically
> caused temperament with definite qualities.
> For example, if your mother was taking meds
> while pregnant, instead of being born "easy-
> going", you may be born anxious. Add to that
> the genetic predisposition for temperament, such
> as aggressiveness, or lazy, etc. and then add
> to that the effect of upbringing, and you have
> quite a complex product to unravel.
>
> So, "personality" is very complex and hard to say
> whether you are born with it. I think not. I think at most, you are born with a temperament
> upon which other factors i mentioned build the
> final result. But once that *is* completed, i
> think it doesn't change, barring things like stroke. As for medications, that's a tough one, because personality is a global interaction of the brain, whereas medications touch only certain areas. So, it may *appear* as if a person has changed on say, steroids, but actually it is only a certain part of his personality that has changed; not his values, not his beliefs, his memories, his tastes, his language, his skills, etc.
>
>
> >
> > Your real personality, I'm afraid, is just
> > "what you get".
>
> See above babbling on this.
> >
> > "What you get" is whatever shows up, whatever
> > response the observer notices, the summation of a
> > load of things: what he/she seems to be - through
> > the prism of the drugs and whatever else is
> > happening at that and at previous moments, etc.
> > etc. etc.
> >
> > But yes, it's troubling. Am I cheating when
> > I'm mingling with people (not something I would
> > want to do ordinarily) whilst on my Deprenyl /
> > Moclobemide combo?
>
> I am not sure what you mean by the above. I think that changes in relations to other people may be a result of many things-- drugs, mania, anxiety, anger, hormonal changes..... but not necessarily the personality, just a trait of it.
>
>
> >
> > Only his psychiatrist knows for sure.
>
> I'm not sure they know anything for sure. :-)
>
>
> >
> >>
> > > Squiggles
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
poster:unbottled
thread:789384
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071009/msgs/789595.html