Jim Devine wrote: > > > ... scientists at New York University were deleting frightening > > experiences from the memories of rats. "This," said neurophysiologist Greg > > Quirk, "is the future of psychiatry."< > > Doug: > > Hey humans already do that - it's called repression! I've already > > forgotten the expensive Italian butter I bought the other week that > > turned out to be rancid. > > but this psychiatric technique may prevent the dreaded "return of the > repressed." For example, you may develop an irrational hatred of > Italians (or of butter) without knowing why.
Cognitive therapy (probably) works _precisely_ by really eliminating those memories. The concept of repression is grounded in what is no longer a tenable conception of how memory works. Clearly the neurological 'discovery' is potentially dangerous under a repressive social order -- but it does offer some possibility of actually _curing_ depression. Controlling/'curing' depression depends on changing one's thinking patterns (which would have to include 'deleting' some memories, whether by therapy, drugs, or other method. Carrol Carrol > > Speaking of NYU, what do pen-pals think of it receiving all those > CPUSA documents? > -- > Jim Devine / "The truth is more important than the facts." -- Frank Lloyd > Wright
