A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “psychiatric treatment”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Daniel Böttger describes his experience after brain surgery for cancer removed his right amygdala, resulting in the complete elimination of visceral fear, depression, and most suffering, while also causing some social difficulties and autism-like symptoms.
Scott Alexander critiques therapy books, highlighting their exaggerated claims and questioning the validity of their approaches, based on his clinical experience and historical misdiagnoses in psychology.
Scott Alexander reviews Foucault's 'Madness and Civilization', examining its controversial historical analysis of societal attitudes towards mental illness.
Scott presents a case of postpartum panic attacks, explains the theory of panic as a false suffocation alarm, and discusses how understanding this mechanism can help treat the condition.
Scott Alexander examines the theory linking inflammation to depression, finding it promising but cautioning against overconfidence, and discusses the potential and limitations of anti-inflammatory drugs as depression treatments.