happiness, happiness ...
Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Thu, 02 Apr 1998 07:38:07 +0000
I appreciate very well Helena's gratitude to psychopharmacology.
I've been prescribing these drugs since they made their first real
appearance in the 1950s. And I've seen the despair of many people
lifted by them.
I've also seen them offered prodigally & fruitlessly to many more
people who were eventually `rescued' by other means: sometimes
depth psychotherapy, sometimes ECT, sometimes a chance alteration
in life's circumstances - often the simple passage of time.
Most usually, by a combination of several approaches.
In her original posting, Camille quite clearly stated she `was not
against use of psychotropic drugs - just very very sceptical
of them....' I think most psychiatrists of experience & honesty
would subscribe to this view (minus, perhaps, one or two `verys'.)
No one should expect Helena to provide us with clinical details
of her own experience. The trouble is: one can rather easily
produce a respectful silence by displaying one's wounds - which is
a slightly unfair game to play so long as there remains a perfectly
valid discussion to be held on the efficacy of these drugs.
Prozac *has* become an international joke - thanks to the grotesque
overselling of it & its related medications by a hustling
pharmacological industry, abetted by the natural gullibility &
laziness of the average doctor.
Holden was expressing powerfully some of the most basic emotions
shared by the young people of his time & place. If Camille was
making her stand against the attitude that we can short circuit
these experiences & struggles with a happiness pill, then she
certainly has my vote.
Scottie B.