I’m a fan of Freud. Despite a lot of funny ideas, his investment in self-awareness – and his method of attaining it, free association – makes him a crucial figure in the enlightenment of our species. Nonetheless, we live in dark times. I’m not a pessimist about nature, but I don’t believe in the progressive arc of history. As Freud himself asserts, human beings have to work to improve themselves. I take this to be true writ large. Without a vast, shared commitment to better our world, we will doom ourselves to horrors old and new. And a sentiment of shared commitment seems to be waning.

As always, though, bad news spells opportunity. In times of darkness, great minds usually arise to challenge the status quo; Freud himself is an example of this. Surprisingly, then, Freud’s philosophy is at the heart of the most scathing critique of modern society I have seen in some time: Adam Curtis’ The Century of the Self.

Curtis doesn’t take issue with Freud’s ideas directly. He attacks them for their consequences. If you have any interest in Freud whatsoever, you MUST watch this documentary. Here is Curtis in his own words:

I don’t say there was a conspiracy but that consumerism had an ideology just as much as fascism or communism did. It was another way of managing the masses in an age of mass democracy. People like [Edward] Bernays were the first architects of that. And the model they used was fundamentally the pessimistic Freudian view that we are just emotional, irrational creatures and nothing more…

Bernays [Freud's nephew] provided the ideas that were used by the US government, big business, and the CIA to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that the psychoanalysts told them lurked just under the surface of normal American life…

What happened was that a group of psychoanalysts took what Bernays had begun and invented a whole range of techniques to get inside and manage the unconscious mind of the consumer. By the early 50s the ideas of psychoanalysis had penetrated deep into American life. The psychoanalysts themselves became rich and powerful and had many famous politicians, writers and show business celebrities as patients. And, as their ideas took hold, a new elite began to emerge — in politics, social planning, and the business world. What linked them was the assumption that the masses were fundamentally irrational. The way to manage a free market democracy, like America, was to use their psychological understanding to control this irrationality in the interests of everyone.

This may sound a bit marxist for your tastes, with its powerful elite controlling the minds of many. But Curtis is really the opposite of a conspiracy theorist – he’s interested in the consequences of good intentions. With an eye and ear for breathtaking historical detail, he illustrates how Freud’s followers undermine the notion of public good.

It’s safe to assume Freud would be horrified by Curtis’ picture. Freud meant to demystify the unconscious, as a way of freeing us from pain and misery. But his savviest disciples proved to be master manipulators. More shillers than healers, they used Freud’s theories to toy with the unconscious instead.

Curtis’ history is beyond shocking, if only because none of it is secret. He weaves together a grand narrative that seems utterly obvious and yet painfully fresh. Yes, it is true: Freud is the great uncle of public relations, the grandaddy of consumer culture. Watch The Century of the Self and you’ll be convinced.

Part One: Happiness Machines

Part Two: The Engineering of Consent

Part Three: There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads He Must Be Destroyed

Part Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

“And yet it seems to me that the process itself, in its very commitment to interiority — its attempt to ferret out prime causes and pivotal events from the psychic rubble of the past and the unwieldy conflicts of the present — can be intriguing enough to stand in as its own reward.”

Read Full Article

[This is a doozy of an article: long-winded, self-involved, not entirely pleasant to read. The obligatory horror stories of pathologically insensitive therapists make me cringe; I believe them but feel they're sensationalized and unbalanced. With the utmost sympathy, Daphne Merkin does seem like a person destined for therapy. I don't mean this as an insult – I wouldn't be featuring this article if I did. (I wouldn't be here if I did!) Merkin's struggles are real, and she's honest about them. As a result, she doesn't offer up the most likable self-portrait. I don't know if that's her objective, but in any case she bravely illustrates a core tenant of therapy: we evade the truth of ourselves at extremely high cost. If you read this article, read it with an open mind. Daphne Merkin may not be "your kind of person," but the sympathy that she feels for herself in the face of obviously frustrating emotions is, I'm sure, a consequence of her life in therapy – a consequence and a great accomplishment. -Ed.]

I love this cartoon. The joke works because we want to pay for inner strength; it should feel difficult, like a triumph – something deeply reached for.

But I don’t read it as an outright critique. As much as this cartoon questions the legitimacy of drugs, it also pokes fun at modernity. The joke works, too, because reaching for the medicine cabinet is so utterly unromantic. Where once there were shaman, vision quests or holy insight, now there’s Rite Aid, $10 and a ’scrip for Paxil.

Nonetheless, is it so far-fetched to find strength in the act of helping oneself? How much humility does it take to crack open that white bottle cap for the first time? It’s easy to conceive of “pill-popping” as a shortcut, an easy way out – until we’re the ones faced with the choice. We may have a hard time admitting it, but inner strength isn’t always there. Sometimes, we need to reach out.

And that’s an act of courage in itself.

This pending law in Nebraska correlates abortion with mental weakness; it suggests that women who are pressured to have an abortion should be handled with kid gloves. First of all, women face all kinds of pressure from all sides at this juncture: lovers, friends, family, and even circumstances themselves. Making a choice under pressure doesn’t mean that it’s a bad choice. Most important choices in life are made this way. Second of all, if we’re honest about these pressures, then we can see this law for what it is: an attempt to use the stigma of mental illness against women considering abortion.

As you probably know from reading this blog, I’m all about de-stigmatizing mental illness. This stigma leads to suicide all the time – every day. It killed my sister, who took her own life before she was willing to take an anti-depressant (even after she filled a prescription). So the thought of using this stigma, reinforcing it, for political victory makes my blood boil. Whatever your position on abortion, we must do better than this law.

Read Full Article

Popular Drugs May Help Only Severe Depression

A headline from two years ago in Nature:

SSRIs show efficacy over placebo only in the most severely depressed patients

Drug companies exaggerate and even fictionalize their drugs’ benefits. This is not news.

I’m not against the use of these drugs, but their reckless promotion leaves a sour taste. Who are these drugs made for, exactly? When I take one of these pills, who stands to gain? These are always good questions to ask. Pills can work, and in the severest cases they’re necessary despite risks. But in the battle for peace of mind, no drug is an easy answer. Adam Phillips says it best: “Havoc is always wreaked in fast cures for confusion.”

[Update: As usual, Jonah Lehrer has a clever take from a year ago. -Ed.]

‘The idea that a drug designed to alleviate physical pain should reduce the pain of social rejection seemed simple and straightforward based on what we know about neural overlap between social and physical pain systems. To my surprise, I couldn’t find anyone who had ever tested this idea,’ DeWall said.

According to a study due to be published in the journal Psychological Science, DeWall and colleagues were correct. Physical and social pain appear to overlap in the brain, relying on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms…

Hurt feelings and social pain decreased over time in those taking acetaminophen, while no change was observed in subjects taking the placebo. Levels of positive emotions remained stable, with no significant changes observed in either group. These results indicate that acetaminophen use may decrease self-reported social pain over time, by impacting emotions linked to hurt feelings.

‘We were very excited about these initial findings,’ DeWall said.”

Read Full Article

[Because emotional pain feels less localized and more abstract, we're inclined to disregard it as something different from "real" pain. We take it less seriously as an injury – i.e., as a treatable medical condition. These findings are a nice counterpoint to that impulse. -Ed.]

I pride myself in keeping an open mind about mental illness, but I have to admit that it’s tough to watch this video without feeling a pang of conservative rage. Where are we going with all of this? Are we so desperate and starry-eyed that we’re willing to experiment on our own children?? Don’t they deserve a more cautious approach?!??!?!

I’m not quick to judge any of the parents. My heart goes out to them. I’ve never had a kid, let alone one with mental illness. But I do know something of the helplessness that surrounds families in the midst of these crises. It’s a God-awful experience – and a dangerous one, too. Feelings of abject helplessness lead to extreme vulnerability. And that’s exactly what you see in this video: vulnerable families being pressured into troubling treatment, all at the behest of powerful institutions with their own interests to weigh. I’m not skeptical of doctors or “experts” (that’s a strain of American fundamentalism I could live without), but at the same time we have to recognize our respective roles. A child’s care is the sole responsibility of his or her parents. The educational system and the health care industry, despite what they advertise, were not designed to care for any particular child. Those institutions have competing priorities (the profit initiative, organizational flow, etc.), including millions of other kids. What is good for a school or a doctor’s office might be at odds with what is good for a child. When it comes to medicating our youth, we should be especially vigilant about these conflicts of interest, and wise to how good people’s judgment can go bad.

Watch Full Video

[Note the segment tiles above the video display; to watch the whole program, click on each segment.]

Read Full Article (mid-page)

[The most striking thing here is the good will of the scientists. One wonders if they lack the concept of a "slippery slope" in Japan. -Ed.]

[This is great. Comedian Howie Mandel opens up about his Obsessive-compulsive Disorder on Ellen. -Ed.]

(via Daily Dish)

[A poignant piece – and it raises some of the toughest questions regarding care: How do we strike a proper balance between the patient's well-being and our own, as caretakers? How can we dispassionately assess improvements when patients have trouble communicating? Who do we trust when the medical community and families are at odds? Finally, why are there so few answers for autism??? Clearly this family was grasping at straws. I wish them well. -Ed.]