Recent studies by psychologists at McGill University, as part of a followup to an original study by Harvard University psychiatrist Dr. Roger Pitman, have been using a drug to reduce the emotional effect of traumatic memories. The drug - a Beta blocker known as Propranolol - reduces the strengthening effects of stress hormones on the formation of memories, and thus is being studied as a treatment for victims of traumatic events such as those suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Associated Press, via Globeandmail.com article)
The effects of administering the drug do not to remove the memory altogether - there is not the amnesia such as in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - but instead reduce the emotional impact the memories. Perhaps surprisingly, the article does not examine the philosophical issues of seperating significant life-events from affect, though I think the use of such a drug echoes what I consider to be a serious problem in the field of Abnormal Psychology (ie Mental Illness).
Diagnosis of mental illness is not based on a concrete body of rules; in reality mental disorders are added and removed as society’s concept of what is normal changes:
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is the handbook used most often in diagnosing mental disorders in the United States and internationally.
[…]What is and what is not considered a mental disorder changes over time. For example, several decades ago homosexuality was commonly considered a mental disorder, and it was listed in the DSM as such. Today, homosexuality is seen by most psychologists and psychiatrists as a normal sexual orientation. (Wikipedia - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder)
A vivid illustration of the relativity of mental illness is that the guidelines for diagnosis always include disruption of either work, or a “normal” social life. God forbid we have citizens unable to work! The diagnosis for Borderline Personality Disorder mainly revolves around the occurance of “mood swings, emotional reasoning, disrupted relationships and difficulty in functioning in a way society accepts as normal”, which seems to uncannily reflect the lives of most disillusioned youth - at least those I know! The need for normalcy through pharmaceutical treatment has gone so far that more than a couple of weeks mourning is “cured” by proscribing Prozac:
[Psychiatrist Richard] Schwartz concludes drugs like Prozac can be used to enforce certain cultural behaviors, resulting in conformity. He explains a scenario where society enforces a set of cultural norms concerning the mourning period of a widow over her husband. At what point is the duration of sorrow considered to be abnormal, and, consequently, requiring treatment? […]Certain societies have certain expectations. If a person violates the established pattern, then the society considers him “ill” and that he needs treatment. (From a paper on the prevalence of Prozac use, “Perpetually Prozac”, Matt Tsou)
And even the drug used in this particular study is being considered for more questionable benefits; Propranolol is being tested for stage fright.
The psychological explication of memory formation used as a basis for the recent studies mirrors a philosophical perspective on subject formation (ie. formation of a sense of a coherent self). While psychologists describe a re-evaluation of memories at the point of remembrance, some philosophers talk of Self as a constantly changing coherent narrative, built from retrospective rationalisation of ones past actions.
“Each time you retrieve a memory it must be restored,” he said. “When you activate a memory in the presence of a drug that prevents the restorage of the memory, the next day the memory is not as accessible.”
The effects of sabotaging this process of self-formation are potentially devastating to one’s self-knowledge. Indeed Leon Kass, Chairman of the US President’s Council on Bioethics considers it unhealthy, stating that painful memories serve a purpose and are part of the human experience. While traumatic experiences such as rape or warfare can be profoundly devistating themselves, there is certainly much need for debate lest the current trend towards a mediacated “normal” population is realised. As is recently very common, parallels can be drawn with certain distopian scenarios such as the use of Soma in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World…
