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Objectivism as Anti-depressant

Posted by davidmcnab 10 years, 2 months ago to Science
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A disturbing proportion of people in the USA take antidepressants on a regular basis - 10% of the adult population average, ranging up to nearly a quarter of women aged 40 and 60.

One of the most depressing things anyone can live with is the belief that they exist for others. This axiom spawns the corollary that no matter how much you do, how hard you work, how much you invent, how much wealth you generate, it'll never be enough. If that's not a big black suffocating wet blanket, please tell me what is.

We recall that uplifting scene in The Fountainhead where Howard Roark hangs up his architect hat for a few hours and becomes a therapist to the sculptor Steven Mallory, delivering an improvised form of therapy not practised by any MD or ClinPsych, and how this snaps Mallory almost instantly out of chronic depression and substance abuse.

So I put forward a conjecture: A significant proportion, maybe the greatest proportion, of the endemic depression we see today is caused by people having lost themselves, by believing they are obligated to live for others; that their mental health can dramatically and permanently improve simply by being taught that it's safe and acceptable to honour themselves; that the most amazing thing they can do to support others is not live for them and bleed to them the fruits of their own labour, but to live for themselves, and set an example proving to others an amazing honourable life is within their reach as well.

Pack this up into a therapeutic protocol and I suggest you'd see antidepressant medication prescriptions and suicide rates plummet overnight.

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  • Posted by davidmcnab 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That raises a question - does Atlantis require a physical place like Galt's Gulch in AS? With the internet's resources of near-instant communication, strong anonymity and encryption options, even anonymous crypto-currency payments, we could set up a virtual Atlantis providing a shelter for trade in real goods and currencies. I'd love to see something like Silk Road, but without the emphasis on criminal good and services.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I just brought up the subject of Atlantis to the former president of our biofuels company last week. With the passing of his wife a year ago, he says that he is ready to leave.
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  • Posted by BeenThere 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Objectivism with its emphasis on internal attribution and invidivual empowerment can certainly relieve a lot of the angst. We learn to make the f***tards irrelevant and just get on with our lives, creating, striving, trading, and sharing with enlightened people in our lives who we care about."

    Not always easy, but can be accomplished.........
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  • Posted by BeenThere 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    And, ARI's Anthem Foundation to place Objectivist professors in colleges and universities, which has made significant progress.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    One of the best reasons for avoiding treatment for depression (or at least, not letting the system do it) is that if certain authorities find out, you lose your gun rights and possibly more of your autonomy.

    Psychiatry is just one of several businesses that really need to exist off-the-books, just so people can use them without betraying themselves.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    How about people who've been successfully and thoroughly looted, and don't see much prospect of ever getting most of our own back?

    Let me have some success. Then I'll turn optimistic.
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  • Posted by wiggys 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I believe you have missed the point; education! I am very aware that the institute has done a magnificent job of getting more attention to AR however, once these high school students graduate and go into a college the teaching of philosophy does not include objectivism or it is spoken of by the faculty in a disparaging way. I do agree that there are some students that go beyond AS to study the objectivist philosophy but unfortunately the number is miniscule compared to the overall population.
    The second aspect of our country at this moment in time is the simple fact that we have an infrastructure that is deteriorating and it is happening much faster than even AR would have projected. I have mentioned a book on this site that you should read, AYN RAND ANSWERS the author so to speak is Richard Mayhew.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm working on such inventions. I can't wait to see all the new inventions in Atlantis, like Dr. Hendricks' little tricorder-like device.
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  • Posted by $ CBJ 10 years, 2 months ago
    I agree with most of the comments here, but depression can stem from physical causes as well as psychological ones. A deficient diet and lack of exercise take a cumulative toll on the body and can make us less resistant to the mental and psychological causes of depression. Taking care of our bodies *and* our minds makes it easier to combat depression and maintain a high level of psychological health, in spite of all the irrationality we see around us.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    All of the ten of us in that company had read AS. I was the last to do so back in 2008. We decided to shrug as a company and sold it to another company across the state.

    Regarding my next business epiphany, I am laying the groundwork for it now so that, when we have Atlantis built, I will release my product to those who can appreciate it fully.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    hey, man -- *you are* the source of optimism for
    retirees like me;;; you're inventing the future faster
    than I ever did! . Thank You! . Keep Up The Work!!! -- j

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  • Posted by johnpe1 10 years, 2 months ago
    well said david!!! . every time someone mentions
    depression in reference to me (once or thrice),
    I laugh -- and they have no idea why, *blaming
    depression.* . I think it's a cult of medical and
    therapeutic work-generation, as well !!! -- j

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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 2 months ago
    One of the great scenes in The Fountainhead the book and the movie, was Roark's encounter with Toohey in which Toohey tries to get a rise out of Roark by telling him everything he has done to destroy him. When he doesn't get a response, he asks Roark, what he thinks of him. Then, Howard Roark says in a few words the most destructive words to Toohey, while at the same time putting up a method of improving mental health: "But, I don't think of you, Mr. Toohey."
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  • Posted by $ jlc 10 years, 2 months ago
    I think your conjecture is accurate davidmcnab, but I would add another parameter: because so many people have lost themselves in pointless social altruism from which deeds, they can see no positive return, their perception of a downward spiral in our society is accurate. (Please note that people who engage in personal voluntary altruism have the opposite experience.)

    Several Gulchers commented that they think that, when they see society clearly, they become depressed. My response to this is that there is a difference between ignoring reality and refusing to wallow in negativity. I _observe_ what is happening in the world; I choose to surround myself with beauty and brilliance and efficacy.

    Have you read the book Lest Darkness Fall? It is a story about an archeologist (nicknamed "Mouse" - no bulge muscled dork) who is transported back to Visgothic Rome...and decides to prevent the Dark Ages. I do not know that I can prevent the fall of dark, but I can keep my candle and a few others around me burning as brightly as I can.

    Why are there 10K people in the Gulch? Because we can all take our candles out and illuminate this site for each other. This is a fine anti-depressant: When I have had to deal with someone who is trying to get something for nothing, I can spend a few minutes enjoying the conversation here.

    Jan, trying for khalling's 'zen-optimist' but not there yet
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  • Posted by davidmcnab 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Oww, that's gotta sting. I'd be fuming in that situation.
    These days, it's got to the point where looters have to be factored into the business' strategic plan, along with other environmental adversities like fires, floods, major electrical outages, earthquakes etc.
    I am fully aware that this is easier said than done. I hope jbrenner that your next business epiphany turns out to be much more looter-resistant.
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  • Posted by strugatsky 10 years, 2 months ago
    I think that your proposal will work for a minority of the population. To be mentally self-sufficient, one has to know himself, which is possible only through education and logic, two ingredients that most people lack. This is why, I believe, altruism is popular - the quantity of feedback is high (never mind the quality), it is instant and requires no thought process higher than that possessed by a pet. Likewise, Facebook is popular as it provides large quantity (and low quality) support without any investment in thought.
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  • Posted by cranedragon 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    This is why we support the program of ARI to distribute copies of Rand's books in high schools. So long as we can continue to reach some significant part of high school and college students, we have a chance of spreading the influence through the group that is now feeling the pain of rising debt [governmental and personal], the skewed effect of Obamacare, and the plummeting likelihood that any of the social programs that are benefiting their parents and grandparents will be there when they retire.
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  • Posted by Mamaemma 10 years, 2 months ago
    I haven't said anything about this, because its a little embarrassing, but I haven't read Atlas cover to cover for a long time, because it is depressing.
    Not too long after coming into Galt's Gulch, I remembered a quote and looked it up:
    "We do not hold the belief that this earth is a realm of misery where man is doomed to destruction. We do not think that tragedy is our natural fate.........It is not happiness, but suffering that we consider unnatural."
    I think each of us has the capacity to choose to be depressed or to be happy. I choose joy.
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