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I did read it. Did you? It is full of this garbage: > The more powerful those stories are, the more you believe in the root forces in them and the causal force
by daveguy 10y ago
I did read it. Did you? It is full of this garbage:
> The more powerful those stories are, the more you believe in the root forces in them and the causal forces that are holding those stories together. In our culture it would be biochemistry, in traditional Chinese medicine it would be balancing between yin and yang, balancing the forces in the universe, in Nigerian traditional beliefs it would be the power of magic and the ability of people to manipulate that.
And another:
> You think when you take an aspirin that your pain relief is coming purely from the aspirin doing something biochemical in your body, but part of that's also coming from your belief in aspirin, and the knowledge that you took the aspirin.
The whole article is about "placebo" disease. This is a crappy way to think about mental illness.
- aarpmcgee 10y agoWhat, in your mind, is a better way to think about mental illness?
- daveguy 10y agoAs an illness to be studied scientifically with the best medical practices available. As an illness to be closely monitored by healthcare professionals and treated with therapy and medicine if necessary. Implying that mental illness is a negative placebo does more harm than good.
- sillysaurus3 10y agoThere's an interesting CGP video related to placebo disease: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2hO4_UEe-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2hO4_UEe-4 I'd be curious to know if you think the video is also bad.
- daveguy 10y agoThat video does a good job of explaining the difference between negative placebo effects and illness. The article conflates actual mental illness with placebo effect. They are not the same, and telling someone who is suffering depression that it's all in their head is harmful, not helpful.