[Buddha-l] Buddhism and Psychology research

[Bruce G. Seidner]

My first exposure to the world of psychiatry was as an Antioch College intern in 1975 on co-op at the Camarillo State Hospital just north of Los Angeles. I was assigned to an acute psychotic unit where, at any given time, we had any number of Jesus Christ's, Mary Magdalens, and assorted other people for whom aluminum foil yarmelkes where no match for the alien thought energies that conflicted with the conative competence of their wearers.

Prolixin, Stelazine, and assorted Chlorpromazines where classified as Major Tranquilizers and truly mitigated the Hell realm suffering of these beings. Mellorill was particularly effective for the suffering of Preta's. Yes tardive dyskinesia was an issue and yes you had to keep people out of the sun least they turn purple, but the magneto that motored their suffering dialed down to manageable levels. By 1977 these medications had been re-badged as "antipsychotics" a felicitous locution that meant billions of dollars for Big Pharma. It was marketing genius. In the early 80's if you had a seizure disorder and a small spark of a discrete brain foci caused a spreading effect and life threatening seizure you had the blessing of an anti-seizure medication like Depakote. Such a brain event was like an errant cigarette but being carelessly thrown from a car into draught tinderbox forest which created the causes and conditions for the consequences of a forrest fire, anti-seizure medication served to "wet" the brain and, like a gentle rain that benefits all sentient beings, decreased the causes for such an inferno. And whaddya know, I mean who would have thunk it,  the use of anti-seizure medication also diminishes the likelihood of other emotional conflagrations seen in manic and depressed affect states. A big wet blanket is a big wet blanket. Attention: marketing people and running dog lackey scientists, the rebadging of anti-seizure medications as "mood stabilizers" has created wealth defined in terms used to describe the grains of sands along the Ganges. Specificity has never been a particular strength of these scientists. Type I errors, Type II errors, it is only the errors that effect the bottom line that matter. It is the medical model run amok, and logic be damned. In scurvy we have a vitamin C deficiency whose remedy is vitamin C. You can drink all the milk you like and eat all the carrots you care and your bones and eye sight will surely benefit. But you will still have scurvy. Want the functional equivalent of a lobotomy? Tank up on "anti-psychotic" or "mood stabilizing" medication. The frat boys and sorority sisters who majored in communications (the academic equivalent of ... well, let me reign this in a bit... The non scientist sales force of the pharmacuetical industry have done a marvelous job of moving the line from what was once conceived of as personality or one's nature and suceeded in pathologizing every thing from shyness, now social phobia to being aware of how sausage is made and calling this depression.

So long story short, leave your felines on Zoloft least they become cat-atonic.

Bruce 


On Saturday09 4, , at 8:14 PM, Richard Hayes wrote:

> On Sep 4, 2010, at 15:50, "Bruce G. Seidner" <brucegseidner at mac.com> wrote:
> 
>> The movement to localize brain function is particularly intoxicated these days as it gets hyper-funded by Big Pharmaceutics to create ever more specious psychiatric illness to medicate.
> 
> Wait, does this mean I should consider taking my cats off Zoloft? And if my dog does not have restless leg syndrome, why does he keep kicking his hind leg into the air every time he sees a fire hydrant?
> 
> Richard
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Bruce

Bruce G. Seidner, Ph.D.                                 
Clinical & Forensic Psychology  
5401 Kingston Pike
Suite 400                                              
Knoxville, TN 37919

865-588-4232 office
865-588-4231 fax
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