When you say you are a linguist, [...] Is this your case?
Not as yet. I've only a bachelors on the subject, though it is my intention to get the doctorate and become a professor. On my current schedule it'll be about six years until I'm applying for positions. The undergrad institution I went to requires a thesis of all students, however. Mine was on the effects of gender on phonetic disambiguation of syntactically ambiguous clauses, which built off of some studies by Ilse Lehiste (http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~ilsele/).
I think it is important not to conflate recovery with a cure, or either with treatment. Through adjusting one's thinking it's possible to overcome depression and go on to live a non-depressive life. However, at present, we don't know of the mechanism behind such recovery such that we can reliably induce such recovery. The shotgun approach to psychopharmacology is sufficiently effective that we can provide a partial treatment, and often good therapy can be instrumental as both treatment and leading to recovery, but neither rightly constitutes a cure.
I don't think that this will always be the case. I think as time goes on and our knowledge grows that we will be able to provide better treatments. However, depression is as much a lifestyle as it is a disease and so recovery lies in changing ones actions and not only in adjusting neural chemistry. I think that drugs can be helpful but that it is important to regard them as a tool not as a solution and that in so doing we must weigh the good that thy provide with the total cost to do so. Until our knowledge in that arena improves greatly, there is much ill to be weighed against the good.
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chiming
Re: Suicide et al.
Date: 2006-08-01 08:06 am (UTC)From:Not as yet. I've only a bachelors on the subject, though it is my intention to get the doctorate and become a professor. On my current schedule it'll be about six years until I'm applying for positions. The undergrad institution I went to requires a thesis of all students, however. Mine was on the effects of gender on phonetic disambiguation of syntactically ambiguous clauses, which built off of some studies by Ilse Lehiste (http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~ilsele/).
I think it is important not to conflate recovery with a cure, or either with treatment. Through adjusting one's thinking it's possible to overcome depression and go on to live a non-depressive life. However, at present, we don't know of the mechanism behind such recovery such that we can reliably induce such recovery. The shotgun approach to psychopharmacology is sufficiently effective that we can provide a partial treatment, and often good therapy can be instrumental as both treatment and leading to recovery, but neither rightly constitutes a cure.
I don't think that this will always be the case. I think as time goes on and our knowledge grows that we will be able to provide better treatments. However, depression is as much a lifestyle as it is a disease and so recovery lies in changing ones actions and not only in adjusting neural chemistry. I think that drugs can be helpful but that it is important to regard them as a tool not as a solution and that in so doing we must weigh the good that thy provide with the total cost to do so. Until our knowledge in that arena improves greatly, there is much ill to be weighed against the good.