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The desire for such a distinction is strong. We prefer to attribute illness to physical causes because in our society we blame the patient for mental but not f
by jcoffland 10y ago
The desire for such a distinction is strong. We prefer to attribute illness to physical causes because in our society we blame the patient for mental but not for physical illness. This disparity drives the push to find physical causes to which we can more comfortably redirect blame. Such as DNA, leptin, bacteria, enzymes, etc. It is wise to be skeptical of any new findings which fit too well with human desires and thus make "good" articles.
- joyeuse6701 10y agoAgreed, it is certainly worth the skepticism, but also worth the skepticism behind the medical communities insistence that it wasn't related. One aspect of history that always concerned me was why 'modern war' had the effect it had compared to antiquity. The horrors of war have been repeated historically, but not like this.
- SmirkingRevenge 10y agoI'm not sure. We have both strong desires to escape blame, but also the strong desires to blame others. And once we've become accustomed to blaming people for a particular thing, it's hard to let go. To what extent the mental is distinct (or not) from the physical body/brain, well... we have no frakking clue. We have a laundry list of disorders previously thought to be purely "mental", that are now known to be physical. Then the rest we just kind of blame people for. I think really what we should ask is, "Does blame work in case X, Y or Z"? e.g. - Does blame cause your child to do better in school and stop acting like a monster? Yes? Great, use blame. - Does blame cause PTSD victims to get over it? No? Then stop blaming them, lets find another way (possibly physical) to fix it.