This part had me rolling. Deeply sarcastic, but important when thinking about attitudes about mental health, even in the wider medical community.
This part had me rolling. Deeply sarcastic, but important when thinking about attitudes about mental health, even in the wider medical community.
But it’s nothing anyone would know about if I didn’t tell them! It was mild even at age 15, and it’s been close-to-nonexistent for the past twenty years! Now I’m a successful psychiatrist who owns his own psychiatry practice and helps other people with the condition! I told them all this. They didn’t care.
I asked them if there was anything I could do. They said maybe I could go to therapy for six months, then apply again.
I asked them what kind of therapy was indicated for mild OCD that’s been in remission for twenty years. They sounded kind of surprised to learn there were different types of therapy and said whatever, just talk to someone or something.
I asked them how frequent they thought the therapy needed to be. They sounded kind of surprised to learn that therapy could have different frequencies, and said, you know, therapy, the thing where you talk to someone.
I asked them if they actually knew anything about OCD, psychotherapy, or mental health in general, or if they had just vaguely heard rumors that some people were bad and crazy and shouldn’t be allowed to make their own decisions, and that a ritual called “therapy” could absolve one of this impurity. They responded as politely as possible under the circumstances, but didn’t change their mind.
I think the intention was to punch up at the opioid crisis and the systemic abuse that got us here, but the way it's phrased seems like it's judging homeless people for drug use.
I think the intention was to punch up at the opioid crisis and the systemic abuse that got us here, but the way it's phrased seems like it's judging homeless people for drug use.
A good read overall about the experience of donating a kidney. But I’m not sure “everyone” is on board with his claimed solution to the kidney shortage at the end.
A good read overall about the experience of donating a kidney. But I’m not sure “everyone” is on board with his claimed solution to the kidney shortage at the end.
Everyone knows we need a systemic solution, and everyone knows what that solution will eventually have to be: financial compensation for kidney donors. But so far they haven’t been able to get together enough of a coalition to overcome the usual cabal of evil bioethicists who thwart every medical advance.
Huh, looks like Scott Alexander donated a kidney. From the article he wrote about it:
Huh, looks like Scott Alexander donated a kidney. From the article he wrote about it:
But getting back to the point: kidney donation has an unusually high ratio of photogenic suffering to altruistic gains. So why do EAs keep doing it? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ll speak for myself.
It starts with wanting, just once, do a good thing that will make people like you more instead of less. It would be morally fraught to do this with money, since any money you spent on improving your self-image would be denied to the people in malarial regions of Africa who need it the most. But it’s not like there’s anything else you can do with that spare kidney.
Still, it’s not just about that. All of this calculating and funging takes a psychic toll. Your brain uses the same emotional heuristics as everyone else’s. No matter how contrarian you pretend to be, deep down it’s hard to make your emotions track what you know is right and not what the rest of the world is telling you. The last Guardian opinion columnist who must be defeated is the Guardian opinion columnist inside your own heart. You want to do just one good thing that you’ll feel unreservedly good about, and where you know somebody’s going to be directly happy at the end of it in a way that doesn’t depend on a giant rickety tower of assumptions.
This part had me rolling. Deeply sarcastic, but important when thinking about attitudes about mental health, even in the wider medical community.
I was so on board until this:
There was no reason to punch down like this. Completely atonal with the rest of the essay’s focus on altruism.
I think the intention was to punch up at the opioid crisis and the systemic abuse that got us here, but the way it's phrased seems like it's judging homeless people for drug use.
While I understand the concept of punching down or punching up, I honestly don't see enough reason to care about a random joke in this way.
A good read overall about the experience of donating a kidney. But I’m not sure “everyone” is on board with his claimed solution to the kidney shortage at the end.
It’s an odd use of “everyone” but perhaps he meant everyone in some community he belongs to?
Huh, looks like Scott Alexander donated a kidney. From the article he wrote about it: