psychopathology and meds

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

[was: RE: [PEN-L:25860] Re: RE: Rebel without a clue]

Louis writes: >...discussion around "A Beautiful Mind" which received the
Best Movie award right around the time I was reading "Madness on the Couch"
by Edward Dolnick. This is a disturbing account of how Freudian
psychoanalysis was used to treat schizophrenia, autism and
obsessive-compulsive disorder prior to the discovery that such mental
illnesses were organic in nature and reacted best to medication rather than
the "talking cure".

>I think we have to put to rest the notion that severe mental illness is
caused by stress, family dysfunction, etc. Autism, schizophrenia and OCD are
all as much an expression of a systemic organic failure as are Parkinsons,
epilepsy or Alzheimers. You might as well use "talk therapy" on somebody
with Alzheimers as with schizophrenia.<

by coincidence, my wife and I recently discovered that our son, who has been
diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (mild autism) and psychosis ("not
otherwise specified," i.e., vague) was being treated by a psychoanalyst who
follows a version of Bruno Bettelheim's line about autism being a result of
the "refrigerator mom" (emotional distance). He had not revealed his
psychological approach in our discussions with him. We are dropping him like
a hot potato, not only because of possible deception on his part but because
(as Louis says) it's a totally inappropriate treatment. It was making
matters _worse_.

(The refrierator mom theory of autism is totally bogus. It turns out that
many moms of autistic kids had autism spectrum disorders themselves, while
some moms were emotionally distant _because_ the kids weren't responding. Of
course, no Freudian would blame the father for being distant!)

However, that doesn't mean that medications are the only cure. Psychotherapy
of other, non-psychoanalytic sorts, can help, as can good parenting. These
can complement the meds -- or may even substitute for them, as with
anti-depressants it seems.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Louis Proyect [mailto:lnp3@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 1:24 PM
> To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L:25860] Re: RE: Rebel without a clue
>
>
> >Jim Devine asked:
> >
> >is anyone able to summarize this character's alleged motive
> for his alleged
> >bombings?
> >
> >Drive ya nuts trying to make sense of it. It did the kid.
> >
> >
> >Tom Walker
> >604 255 4812
>
> I have tried to stick to the agenda of political economy,
> broadly speaking,
> since my return to PEN-L. This question, however, does prompt
> me to suggest
> a look at my article "Movies and Madness" which showed up on Marxmail
> recently, plus the addendum on the movie "Snake Pit".
>
> http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/madness.htm
>
> http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/snakepit.htm
>
> It was inspired by discussion around "A Beautiful Mind" which
> received the
> Best Movie award right around the time I was reading "Madness
> on the Couch"
> by Edward Dolnick. This is a disturbing account of how Freudian
> psychoanalysis was used to treat schizophrenia, autism and
> obsessive-compulsive disorder prior to the discovery that such mental
> illnesses were organic in nature and reacted best to
> medication rather than
> the "talking cure".
>
> I think we have to put to rest the notion that severe mental
> illness is
> caused by stress, family dysfunction, etc. Autism,
> schizophrenia and OCD
> are all as much an expression of a systemic organic failure as are
> Parkinsons, epilepsy or Alzheimers. You might as well use
> "talk therapy" on
> somebody with Alzheimers as with schizophrenia.
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
>