WHO AM I? WHO ARE YOU? Frightening New Questions.
[Note: This article originally appeared in http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]
Dear Friends:
This is a very unusual twist on a frequently asked (and seldom satisfactorily answered) philosophical question... WHO AM I ? My contention (and I pride myself on being contentious) is that the philosophical question now contains a powerful psychological/psychiatric component leading to new questions which concern our future as a species:
QUESTIONS --
1. How much of me is my inherent personality, and how much of me is my pathology?
2. Is pathology actually an inseparable, integral component of my personality?
3. If you medicate or otherwise "treat" my apparent pathology, will you deprive me of my intended, innate personality? Will my essence be altered or destroyed?
4. If mental illness as a pathology is commonly perceived and many times defined as abnormal behavior ("abnormal," meaning many things, some of which include "different," "unique," "driven,"...), if you take away my pathology, I become "normal". Is this desirable for me? Is this desirable for society?
5. Has anyhing truly great been accomplished in Human history by anybody who was not, by contemporary standards, symptomatic of a psychological or psychiatric pathology? If the anwer is as I suspect, I am frightened for our future.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
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