like. It was enriching.
I was talking about semiconductor physics and quantuum mechanics with an
old friend of mine. He was explain just how crappy the science was. I
had to laugh and have a small cry inside. He didn't know anything about
mental health research.
Physicists and engineers have pushed the understanding of physical
reality ever further such that their accuracy is close to the truth,
certainly for the lay person.
He spoke to me about the problems if the bottom quark being discovered
at 3.5 times the estimated size. The hypothesis described by the complex
mathematical equations involved in sub-atomic physics must be proven by
the evidence collected from particle accelerators such as the Large
Hadron Collider.
This was a sign of how poor the science of quantum physics was but to me
it was a good sign. The scientist will continue to push for the truth
and not be swayed by dogma which can exist even in the greatest sciences.
I drew out a scale in front of him and marked a point near the top end
to show him where physics research was and another point near the bottom
end of the scale to indicate mental health research. The scale
represented the ability to reliably come up with the best approximation
of the absolute truth.
Mental health really is akin to alchemy. It is far from a real science.
Many smart men have made this point again and again.
It is unfair to criticise because I know just how difficult
understanding life and the human mind is. Application of positivistic
science hasn't elucidate the same quality of answers as was possible
with the physical world.
Mental health professonals don't seem to care that their science is like
alchemy. They apply techniques that are based on tiny effect sizes and
often poor quality experiments riddled with bias. The results can only
be applied if the exact same conditions used in the experiment are used
in practice however this doesn't happen which reduces the value of
evidence-based medicine to the point where trial and error is more
suitable than offering a certain type of therapy or medication..
The science is evolving and as the new fashion for psychosocial
interpretations of mental health comes into season the biomedical
model's swan song is psycho- and pharmocogenetics. Psychogenetics offer
for the first time the possibility of identifying those who may be
predisposed to certain 'illnesses', e.g. a person could be identified as
fitting the criteria for schizotaxia through their genetic code rather
than an operational cluster of symptoms. Pharmocogenitics offers the
hope of first time 'treatment' using medication and enables the use of
dangerous drugs with otherwise couldn't be considered because of the
risk of death.
Research into the physical world rarely had much consideration of ethics
however it is essential in mental health and the application of the
research results as well as the research itself. To prove nature versus
nature Dr.Money decided to change the sex of a baby (with his parents
consent) after his penis was burnt off in a circumcision accident.
Thankfully nothing like this would ever happen today.
The genetic map of human behaviour and type will offer the greatest
opportunity for preventative 'treatment' and the greatest opportunity
for humankind to wreck the gene pool and the diversity of the human
race. Identification of individuals who may or may not have emotional or
behavioural problems through genetic assay could be used to make certain
types of human disappear.
Mental illness is a societal judgement based on whatever sociopolitcal
situation exists at the time and how well society and the human race is
adapted to the spectrum of the human race and behaviour. Parents would
want the best outcome for their children so they would be expected to do
genetic tests to assess the risk of mental illness (and with time this
may be adapted to understand the psychological type of the parents and
their psychosocial capability to form an undisordered individual). Given
free will many would choose not to have a mentally ill child because
their understanding of mental illness is wholly a medical illness just
like any other illness, but it isn't.
Many parents would also want to screen for other conditions. If a parent
knew that their child had a risk of being born blind they would probably
choose not to have that baby. But people who are blind are part of the
human race and part of our diversity. Their lives are difficult because
society is still not fully adapted to the spectrum of the human
condition (the physical and even more so the mental condition). In the
ideal society, i.e. one that worked for everyone, their disability
wouldn't exist and their difference would be able to contribute to the
wealth of richness of homo sapiens.
The human race will be less without the blind and without the mentally
ill, in my opinion.
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