Why Do You Think You Are Nuts?

Culture can not simply be broken down into two groups, as Twenge and Ryan seem to agree. Cultures are not just blocks of Legos that fit together so perfectly as to merge into one, globalized state of mind. Cultures, though bordered often by natural boundaries, are not as clear cut as they may seem.

However, Carl Jung would ardently disagree. Jung, a student of Sigmund Freud, opined that all individuals share a collective unconscious; around the world, in every culture imaginable, we all make the same 16 faces when expressing an emotion. Does that make us globalized? Is our collective unconscious removing ourselves from our own minds, or is this exchange of ideas in a globalized age facilitated by Facebook, smartphones, Skype and texting?

Before delving into these questions, let us take Janet McKee's rather problematic statement and view it under an analytical lens: "... reductionist Western medicine is largely concerned with the analytical breakdown of the body into smaller and smaller parts, as it attempts to isolate the single smallest biochemical factor as the cause of disease" (McKee, p 776). While McKee is correct in her assertion of specificity as the epicenter of Western medicine, she completely disregards the benefits of practicing medicine in a biochemical framework. As she calls the biochemical model of medicine "reductionist," I surely doubt if she fractured her femur she would say the broken bone is a result of a problem with her body as a whole. Her view, in essence, is a view that promotes hollistic medical care, or care that takes the mind, body, and spirit into account before any medical action, prophylactic or prognostic, is taken. She, along with Chan, Ho, and How, then opine naturopathy, or a less Western medical model that proposes "diseases and energy cause germs," is a cultural paradigm in non-Western medicine that may be a better alternative to the biochemical model -- she sees the biochemical model as an agent of capitalism, while the other three see the model as a farse.

"Take this drug! Take that drug! Oh, you're still sick? Have another!" Yes, this is capitalism at its finest. Keep the sick as sick as possible for as long as possible and milk their illness for all their money's worth. Many different drugs have been experimented upon multiple times with both internal and external validity and have been shown, in many cases, to have high rates of reliability. Along those lines, many types of automobiles have undergone similar testing. Both sell equally well. McKee seems to be of the belief that capitalism is treating our bodies as an object to be bought and maintained with drugs and vitamins, just as a car needs oil and gasoline.

But drugs work better than simply thinking positively. Human beings are not cogs in a machine that can be bought and sold for others that better fit -- we are the physical representation of life, of health, and if my health can be better protected by a drug than a mantra, then damn it, I'm taking that drug.

To illustrate the difference between the ways of thinking of health, let us take a disorder of the mind, Borderline Personality Disorder, into consideration. BPD has no established cause, though it is linked to certain genes, the environment in which an individual was raised, and childhood abuse, to name a few. The symptoms of BPD, as defined by the DSM-V, are by and large too meticulous for our purposes; however, in patients living with BPD, the areas of the brain known as the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortexes are smaller and less active than in those who do not live with the disorder. Mood stabilizing medication along with SSRIs and benzodiazepines, combined with dialectical behavioral therapy, have been shown to treat almost every symptom of the disorder. Now, I would ask McKee, is BPD not localized in the brain? I would ask Chan, Ho, and Chow, if one can get their qi-gong (Chinese medicinal practice) energy in correct alignment, would the amygdala and hippocampus grow? Would the prefrontal cortex fire neurons more regularly? Would the symptoms dissapear? Show us some peer-reviewed studies that illustrate a positive correlation between practicing qi-gong and higher rates of health; then, we'll have more to discuss.

Though homeopathic and naturopathic practices are still widely performed around the world, the western culture of the medical model of psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience and psychopharmacology is collectively integrating itself into the cultures of nations, towns, cities and villages around the world. While our model is quickly replacing others, theirs are influencing ours as well. Yoga and meditation, all Eastern cultural traditions, have been shown to reduce anxiety, increase blood flow, and heighten brain functioning. Certain herbal teas and patterns of breathing can induce sleep, improve short-term memory, among many other symptoms of diminished health.

Maybe, as Jung proposed, we are all collectively trying to achieve the same goal of health in different ways. Health does not have to be solely an issue of economics, of capitalism, of culture -- health should be mediated by verifiable and reliable science, and if a merging of all cultural practices can further our collective human health, sign me up for that clinic.

I think all the authors of these readings, including myself, are sick of living our lives on the border.