> When she is face to face with an addicted patient, Friedman explains, what is at stake is that patient’s very ability “to become a full person without the sha

> When she is face to face with an addicted patient, Friedman explains, what is at stake is that patient’s very ability “to become a full person without the shadow of always needing something.” The more I think about it, the whole idea of using stimulants if very Icarus-esque. Societal pressures urge us to become productive, the sub-C-level tasks involved with being productive tend to be tedious and despite our natural inclination to be bored out of our minds when performing them, we force ourselves to face them. One way we do this is through the ingestion of stimulants, most notably caffeine and now, amphetamine. Staytner's ex-artist patients who have sold out for "productivity" seem to embody this ideology to the greatest extent.