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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Psychiatry?

I've been watching videos about psychiatry and those who oppose psychiatry as a medical field. (especially from those Scientology follower) i actually disagree with them and i do believe mental illness really occur. I've been trough several experience dealing with them.
Psychiatry has been a field that interest me so much.
However, it always come to my mind until what degree psychiatry will influence our view of mental illness? Is it true that all mental illness is nothing but some chemical imbalance within the core of our mind?
This is where i struggle with, with the question that nobody ask....does psychiatry make us a mere robot and no more than that?

what i mean by that statement?

Psychiatry tries to tell that most mental illnesses can be traced into brain function and chemical imbalance. However i cannot fully agree with this. It might sound ignorant or naive but does it mean we destroy the core of humanity? The only part that separate us from other living being?

I do believe that each human being posses what we can call as soul. it is not those flying white gas after you died. But there is this invisible form within us that make us human. Our emotion, our thought, our behavior, and ability to generate love and compassion toward others.

When certain person become mentally ill, or lost its ability to think "normal" does it mean it can be fixed with some kind of medicine? that's it?

Psychiatry deals with the most difficult illness of all, the illness of soul, the illness of human.

Animal can suffer from lung disease, or cancer, or even cardiac arrest just as human. But i dont think animal can suffer from bipolar disorder, anorexia nervosa, or pyromania. (probably some, but generally no)

When we say that all mental illnesses can be cured by medicine, it just struck me. It means that we are nothing but a simple machine that can be "fixed" with medication.

My pain is nothing than a chemical reaction in my brain, it can be fixed with medicine

My laughter is nothing than a 'normal' brain reaction toward funny stimulant

When i fell in love with my girlfriend, that is nothing but some chemical running trough my nerves. Its nothing more than that. Some tablet can stop me from loving my girlfriend, loving my father, loving the people around me.

When i cried for the loss of someone i love so dearly, it can be fixed. Just drink this tablet, and that tablet four times a day and there are no loss anymore, there are no relationship towards that person anymore. Medicine can disconnect that relationship, you can shut down your system.

Does psychiatry makes us such robot, that simply move and work because our main processing system command us to do so?

The movie WALL-E gave me some soothing answer though.

At the ending part of the movie. Wall-e was badly damaged. He lost his eyes, he lost his limb, but the worst he lost the chip that control his movement and processing system. That is where WALL-E record that "love songs" that he likes so much, and that is where he left his 'love' for EVE. When that chip damages, WALL-E lost all of its processing function.

I love the scene when EVE replace all, include the processing chip of WALL-E. Suddenly WALL-E runs normally again, but lost of his sense of love, memory, and compassion towards EVE.

Are we trying to say, that someday that will happen to us as well? That we are able to replace even our brain and that's it. We are nothing but another WALL-E.

Fortunately the WALL-E story not stop there. On the moment when EVE touch WALL-E, somehow he start to remember everything again?
How could that thing be possible? We are talking about mere machine, who lost all of its past memory, new processing system, and there is no track of EVE whatsoever within him (even the song was deleted from its new system) but then gain all his love towards EVE just because of simple touch? That is the sense of mystery that i think are worthy to be kept.

I believe that there will always be this mystery of how we function, and why do we function that way that are best kept as mystery and probably will never can be explained.

Most skeptics will say, WALL-E is just a stupid animation that has no meaning but mere entertainment so be it. But at least for me i can see and think more than only some exciting visual stimulation of my brain.

That beauty of mysterious recovery of WALL-E will always encourage me to see, that we are more than supercomputer, or some big machine that can be fixed all the time. We are more than only robot, because of the existence of our soul and our mind.

Thank you WALL-E to remind me again about that. That Human, at the end of the day has more meaning than only functional mega machine.

The Question on Money

I bought some pop corn on the way home, well i like pop corn and according to Newsweek magazine popcorn is one of those snack with low glicaemic index. However i found that my popcorn was very salty.
I bought it from the cinema small shop since that is the only common place people eat popcorn. Then i realize why they need to make popcorn salty. Simple, business. (aka.Making money)

When you eat salty food, basically it drains water from your cell. Therefore, automatically your body will crave for water. In this case, eating this popcorn will make you want to drink and in the cinemas they clearly write "no other food/drink allowed" means you can only buy from them.
What a nice trick, that's why the seller asked me "dont you want a drink with your popcorn?"

business is business, no matter what is the product. It was produced to create money, profit. No matter how healthy you want your food is, there are no way you can get an healthy food unless you cook it yourself. Or go to those charity resto. even the so called "vegetarian/healthy food" i consider not completely good.
Something commercial, will always be commercial.
When something is valued by money, like it or not it will loss the sense of originality, the sense of belonging, the sense of beauty.
It becomes duty, obligation, since both parties has done their part.

That is why, salvation MUST be free. If not, the world will simply not exist