Reply to comment

Recently, I have noticed my thoughts going back again and again to the physiological side of things.  I keep asking myself, "how does this affect the physical structure of our brains?"  

I am reading a book right now about  a neuroscientist who suffered a stroke, recovered, and went on to write about the experience.  She reveals how she observed her cognitive functions melting away piece by piece as the blood filled her brain and destroyed more and more tissue.   

This book, along with a lot of our exploration this semester have made me realize how much of our existence is in the physical structure or our brains.  If it's not all of it, then it's pretty close.  I understand that this is not a brilliant revelation, but its developing more and more significance in my own mind.  

So, one of my issues with therapy is... how does it work?  What is the mechanism?  I am not arguing that talking, or culture, can't affect our brains.  I'm just saying that if most or all of us exists in the neural circuitry of our brain, then why don't we focus on manipulating that circuitry to achieve the changes we want?  

This is why drugs are particularly interesting to me right now.  They seem to provide a concrete way of providing change.  This also seems to be why drugs have more credibility than therapy too.  Some guy in a white coat can stand up there and say "Pill X affects structure Y which is responsible for symptom Z."

I'm not saying that therapy doesn't work.  I'm sure it does for some people... maybe it could for all people.  I think we can accept that and move on.  I think a more useful question is how does it work?  How does it change the neural connections that shape my experience?

I feel like the answer to this question, as well as a more subtle understanding of the connections in the brain and our ability to manipulate them will lead to the next generation of treatment.