XPost: alt.suicide.holiday   
   From: squiggle@sympatico.ca   
      
   Emma Wallace wrote:   
   > The reference to the zoloft commercial caught my attention, because I   
   > did notice that about the commercial.   
   >   
   > "If you are feeling the following perfectly normal emotions, you might   
   > depressed, your depression might be caused by a chemical imbalance.   
   > Zoloft will cure you!"   
   >   
   > And I think that physciatry may be subjective, but medicine has only   
   > become more objective with developments like the microscope. Before   
   > that it was the same thing. Try something and if it seemed to work, go   
   > from there. Perhaps, psychiatry doesn't have the benefit of the   
   > technology needed to look at the issue on that level. I'm not saying   
   > that the drug companies aren't really suspicious, just that humans have   
   > an absurd demand for proff that it's not always possible to provie at   
   > this time. Science is always a process and involves a lot of trying the   
   > understand things without clear measurements, making up theories that   
   > seem to fit the evidence, that sort of thing. Expecting to already have   
   > proof isn't a characteristic of science, but of already established   
   > theories. Current research is never so concrete.   
   > -E   
   >   
      
   I agree with that.   There is a trend that I think started around   
   the 70s or so, where marketing became very aggressive in health   
   care products.  Universities became dependent on powerful corporations   
   and money, and science was no longer the private passion of the   
   elite intelligentia competing for the next best discovery.  It   
   became more of a social cooperative structure, with yearly   
   conferences, and enticements to publish or perish.  I think   
   science may have changed then.  Technology, on the other hand   
   has kept the upper hand.  Education too, has changed and I wonder   
   what the next generation will be like.  I hope the net will   
   provide greater availability of knowledge and information.   
      
   Squiggles   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)