Dreamspirit

I don't mean that kind of couter culture, I mean stupid counter culture like neo redneckism, hippies, and goths/emos. Perhaps you misunderstood me.

Sometimes I think really what I'm wishing for is a renaissance. I'm seeing all these great improvements in technology, but the culture is quite sad. You have to admit that it is, people have no principles or pride, no self respect, they're just monkey see monkey do.

As a young girl, I have always wished that I lived in a simpler time with less counter culture, crudeness, complicated rules, stupid ideas for movies/books/tv shows, inflation, and dishonesty/lack of moral character. But then again there are many disadvantages to living back in time too, such as the irrationality/dogma, social conformity, lack of opportunity and technology etc. I don't know about everyone else, but it kind of bothers me to not have my money going to something that is tangible such as internet phone service and the technological transformations are a little depressing in a way (there are advantages to them of course). It's not that I want to control achievement or greatness, just wish that I lived in a simpler time, full of glamour and prestige, but without the complicated technology and culture. Just like the Great Gatsby, that's the kind of culture I would like to live in, without the irrationality of the past.

That's what was reccomended for me, but along with some of the other ones I tried, it had very little effect and actually exacerbated my problems. I'm sure it is effective for most people though. I hope everyone realizes that I'm not having these problems now, I have just been studying psychiatry and psychology because I am interested in getting into activism against the promotion of drugs for children and teens. Given my personal history, it is something I feel strongly about, and it pains me to think of all the helpless children being damaged by this epidemic.

I am in college, I am 19 years old, why wouldn't I be? I didn't mean that I don't know where to look for basic medical journals, I meant that it would be hard to find one proving my point. It would be very hard to find a medical journal criticizing the medicating of people based on the idea that there is a chemical imbalance in the brain because drug companies do bogus research (ie. doing bad clinical trials till the cows come home and choosing two that show it is effective and safe) and hire ghostwriters that publish things under the name of a respected doctor in favor of their drugs. Those are just two of the many examples of why you can't trust the psychiatric field. It's just a basic big picture theory based on personal experience, which I think is much more grounded in reality than what the medical journals say, because they can't even begin to understand people for their experiences and who they are. I was not given bipolar meds, I was given something for "moods" which I think, based on my research, would most closely resemble something they would give a person with borderline personality disorder (which I saw written stuff about in his notes). They give borderline personality disordered people low dose antipsychotics and SSRIs that are approved for treating anxiety problems (ie. zoloft) temporarily when they are under stress. What makes me mad the most is that he was not telling my parents where he was coming from with the medication and REALLY there was a diagnosis, but he covered up the details so they would blindly cooperate. They didn't even really have an idea of what they were giving me. The antipsychotic med isn't even supposed to have results until after 1-2 weeks of use and the SSRI takes 8-10 weeks. I was getting better even before I started taking them, but my moods were still sick to him, even though I was asking to get a part time job and go back to school, perhaps because I told my female therapist that I wanted to sue the people in the hospital for the way they treated me. Giving me dirty looks, "baiting" me etc., keeping me in longer than necessary (I was too naive to realize that they problems I had were simply rooted in lack of sleep). The psychiatrist even admitted at the end that the medication had no effect, so there you go. After a couple months of the SSRI, I was yawning constantly (like every 30 seconds), couldn't do math (which I figured out is due to a lack of hormone which helps with problem solving; it went away right after I discontinued it), couldn't exercise because I felt fatigued/lethargic, and became very agressive with strange people which is VERY unlike me. Those are actually just a few of the side effects, and the doctor would not listen to me when I tried to tell him about this, he just interrupted me and dominated the conversation. I felt no different except for the side effects, I was still the hostile, angsty pain in the butt teenager I'm afraid. I don't know why sleep medications didn't have the effect on me that they should have, but I would just lie there, physically unable to fall asleep and most of the time my thoughts weren't even racing. All I know is, I've pretty much outgrown the insomnia problems, although I do know that I am still resistant of sleeping medications.

I personally think the chemical imbalance theory has some merit but not even as close to as much as they say. I have no proof of this because I wouldn't know how to look for it in medical journals, and I'm not sure there even are any medical journals on it, but here is an example. You've got an adolescent boy with anxiety about talking to girls. He may have something in the environment that sets it up (divorce/troubles at home or being rejected a lot)and over the years he builds up a fear of women that gets very intensely ingrained in his psyche when it is vulnerable (growing and changing, doesn't have fully developed lobes etc.). Over time, these disoriented or funny ways of thinking/habits (avoiding women, having anxiety attacks etc.)set chemical patterns in his brain as it matures and thus becomes what psychiatrists call social anxiety disorder. These patterns can be somewhat reversed naturally most of the time, but my theory is, in this pill popping society people find it convenient to label themselves with a disorder instead of working hard to face life (and with the seemingly knowledgable drug dealers behind white coats reinforcing that they have a genetic problem they become even more convinced). I never had sleep problems except for when I was a kid/adolescent. When I was a kid, I either had extreme insomnia or very deep, healthy sleep patterns. I think this has to do with having a very active mind, but I'm not sure this is entirely true because when I was a baby, I was an unusually big sleeper. I was very very stressed out during that time because to begin with I am a sensitive person, and people gave me crap about it, so I started kind of disassociating myself. The bullying (rumor spreading and threats) caught me at a vulnerable time and was the straw that broke the camel's back. I didn't stay awake completely 5 days, you misunderstood me, I probably slept for about 2-4 hours maybe twice in that time. The sleeping patterns got worse over time, they didn't just spring out of nowhere. I had insomnia and irritability for months, but not extreme insomnia which caused the full on craziness. They were trying to give me sleeping pills but I laid in bed and they NEVER worked. I was neurotic (meaning excessively emotional, irritable, anxiety ridden, rapid thoughts etc.) before the sleep problems, but now that I have reached the 18 mark, I know this was due to the extremes in hormones from my growing body (I grew 5 inches in the course of 2 years). I can't even remember in detail what it was like before I turned 17, I can only have a slight idea of the big picture that the changes were so great. Fluctuating hormones, smaller frontal lobes, the stress of adolesence, and the maturation of the brain all play a part in this sort of teenage neurosis I think. I had an increased need for sleep which my parents didn't understand (they thought there was something wrong with me cause I was sleeping like 12 hours but I believe my body physically needed this sleep, and it had nothing to do with being depressed or whatever). I was also being emotionally abused by a teacher every morning which made me not want to get out of bed (my parents didn't understand the extent of the emotional abuse until I told them about it later) who called me stupid and yelled at me in front of the class cause he had a personal vendetta against me. It is also worth noting that I sniffed some nail polish and inhaled some spray on makeup in that frame of time (I had been wearing the makeup for a couple of weeks when my neurotic behavior started to become apparent). I certainly have no family history of mental illness among non-elderly adults or children, there isn't a single person, close or extended anywhere with a psychiatric diagnosis unless you count my autistic cousin which is kind of a different thing if you ask me. I had never taken any drugs, except for melatonex when they were trying to get me to sleep and a couple of antibiotic treatments here and there. So, if you ask me, brain chemicals ARE responsible for mental deficiencies but the problem is psychiatrists don't have a good grasp of how this relates to environment, personality tendencies/abberations (ie. shyness or sensitivity which are only traits), and therfore cannot really determine what is normal and what is not. The DSM is basically a book of thinking disorders that could apply in some way or another to 99% of people. The purpose of it is not to truly help people, it is to make money on drugs, and if you REALLY study the history of psychiatry (ie. miltown and valium), this will be apparent in a lot of ways. It was also bolstered around the idea that there is a "collective mind." Most psychiatrists would prescribe a narcissistic or personality disordered person SSRI's just simply because they think that they become improved most of the time by taking them. They aren't really improved or cured, their brain is just partially shut down.

Men, what is more disgusting to you, a well groomed woman who burps, farts, has a filthy house, and eats unhealthy food or a poorly groomed woman (bushy eyebrows, yellow teeth, acne etc.) who doesn't do those things?

Yes, but there have been people who were totally unconscious (and physicians say that they would be phisiologically unable to dream) who claim to have felt that they were floating above their body, and observed whatever was going on below. People in surgery have been able to recall exact things that happened in the operating room that they couldn't have possibly noticed coming in, like where nurses put their stuff or what surgeons said. I felt the same way you did until I learned this.

In your opinion, what explains near death experiences? I am not exactly an atheist, but I don't build my life in any way around a belief in a God. I simply sense that the soul or mind exists in some way outside of the body. Part of what has led me to this is my father's tale of a near death experience in a car crash when he was a child. He got a really bad head injury, and claims that he was starting to float outside of his body, and was seeing everything that was going on, even though he was knocked out. As a very young child, I also said very peculiar things about living before and coming from somewhere else. I also asked my mother why there is a heaven because we get reborn when we die. I could not have heard this anywhere, I was a four year old child and my media intake was strictly limited to barney and disney.

It's actually interesting, because my body is somewhat resistant of sleeping pills, especially when I haven't had much sleep lately or had chaotic sleeping habits. I used to try to take a sleeping pill for one or two nights once in a blue moon if my sleeping habits got really crazy, so I could get up early, but it actually made me stay awake longer. And in the hospital, they gave me two heavy duty sleeping pills when I couldn't fall asleep at about the average time at night to go to bed, and I was like awake until 4 in the morning. Since birth, I have always had a strong tendency to need a lot of sleep. When I was a baby I would just sleep and sleep and sleep and as a kid I loved going to bed. But I have always had a tendency to be nocturnal which is why I have such a problem sleeping like everyone else. They have done studies on whether being a night owl or a morning person is biological. Yeah, and I think quite likely, since I hadn't slept for like 5 or 6 days (I had actually tried melatonex which had no effect) my brain was starved and my thinking was like the way it would be in a dream or something. But the doctor assumed that the reason I couldn't sleep was because I was suffering from "mania" (rolleyes). I also think that the lack of dreaming could have caused it, because it is a necessary psychological function to get rid of incoherent and ridiculous thoughts during that time.

He isn't just like that about his appearance, he's like that about a lot of other things too. I think it's just an especially bad sign when an attractive person can't see how desirable they are. If you have that advantage, a psychologically healthy person tends to be very proud of that fact or at least accept a compliment without humbling themselves. But I could be wrong. It's just that, being a generally above average person its hard to see how someone like him wouldn't be proud of their looks. It does sound like he is struggling with some sort of conflict in values. He used to masturbate a lot and look at porn he told me, and is irrationaly moralistic when it concerns sexual relationships. It's gotten better, but sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a scared pubescent boy who doesn't know how to make me feel like a woman. This could be due to the fact that he has never kissed a girl before (he claims that he is saving it for whoever he is loyal too, which is really quite ridiculous if you ask me) but I don't believe him for one second. But again, I really doubt that it is his fault he has probably become repressed in a very bad sort of way. His parents used to come in his room, catch him masturbating, and tell him to quit it. He also used to hold some really crazy religious beliefs in the past, which he doesn't believe now (although he does identify as christian). I think it is the lonely environment he's in, some crazy religious beliefs he's been taught, and his parents divorce. Just because I like to talk about sex every now and then or make some good natured joke about my vagina he comes in later and says, I just don't know what to do, I hope you aren't expecting me to have sex with you. How much more insulting and awkward can you make a person feel? I would never, ever do anything like take my clothes off unless the man made the first move. I said I am not trying to make the moves on you or anything I just want things to flow naturally, and I'm a sensual person. I would never ever do anything he was uncomfortable with. Then he said, well I was just checking, because I didn't want anyone to expect anything and then be dissapointed. These moralists are crazy, because it really ruins the whole thing if you bring it up like that. Every time I fantasize about something, what he said is going to pop into my head and bother me. Christian moralists tout that sex is more enjoyable after marriage or whatever, but when you say something like that it just ruins it. If I wasn't sure that he is highly aroused by female erotica I would have been out the door. I really think he needs help if he is going to change (which I have complete confidance that he can become a confident male) but the trouble is I don't think I can help him properly, and it would hurt our relationship. He's cleaned out his religious beliefs (at least he says he has) and believes what an average christian does and that has helped things a lot, but I still think he needs to correct his thinking further as well as become proud of himself and honest about what he wants. A male, objectivist counselor would be good (he doesn't have a proper male role model or brother) but I doubt he would accept that he is not doing good things for himself. The other option is later, if things got more serious, to do "couples counseling" or something like that, saying simply that I want to go.

You've got to be kidding me. When I was 14, and in a sleep deprived state, I simply said a bunch of gibberish and found myself forcibly commited (almost forcibly commited to a very bad place, but my parents stopped it) against my parents will to the hospital for a week. I was not given any medication for the first couple days, but I slept and after that I had left that state and started intellectualizing/challenging everything. For example, a guy came in and said all this stuff about a belief in God and I asked why we should be lectured about something that is morally subjective to different people. Obviously nothing wrong with me, just sleep deprived and emotionally distraught/confused because of cruel rumors and long term bullying at school. After I got a couple nights of sleep, I was not bat crazy any more but I was of course still upset about what had happened to me and being forced in there was like being bullied again. I was an innocent, blonde normal looking little 14 year old girl that they saw when I was sleep deprived and automatically assumed that I would have a permanent mental disease my whole life (this is actually what they told my parents initially and later could not even begin to diagnose anything in me). IMO psychiatrists and mental doctors use biology only when it benefits their theories. In their opinion, extreme sleep deprivation alone is not enough to cause craziness (when it clearly is) and a doctor that I was forced to see must have thought I have some slight underlying genetic tendency towards bipolar. I read what he had written in my file and he put symptoms of biplar I, anti social personaltiy disorder, borderline personality disorder hahaha, it's just like a bully really. Yet, he had told my mother there was no diagnosis, but he was experimenting with giving me drugs that are probably what you would give a so called borderline person. Even though I had no diagnosis, I was STILL forced to take pills in therapy which my parents fought. My psychiatric and therapy appointments became a game and I would be a different thing every day just to make their jobs harder, not actually talking about what was bothering me, which is what therapy was supposed to be for. It got to the point where I was actually being emotionally abused by the psychiatrist and he was enraged. Instead I was treating them like I had treated the bullies at school, because they were no different, perhaps worse. I was just a naive child, interrupted and mislead by quacks. After I took the pills for a couple months and started developing extremely agressive behavior and fatigue (and this was only on half of a beginning dose) my parents had to fight to be able to take me off them, and eventually did so against the frantic attempts of the psychiatrist to get my parents to "cooperate." First he had insisted that I could just take that tiny amount for a year and that I wouldn't need any more, then he changed his opinion around and told my parents that it wouldn't have any effect unless they switched to the full dose for a couple of years and possibly long term. The only explanation he gave my mom for medicating me was one word, "moods." I didn't feel like a human. The only reason my parents didn't sue was for the purpose of keeping it private.

It's not exactly that he asks for reassurance, I think he probably just has kind of an unsure outlook on life. He is a very attractive, good looking man (and I don't say that for nothing) and if I say something like you are sexy, he acts bewildered and says something like, "I never thought I was really that good looking." He is 18 years old, and wants to be an engineer, but debates for weeks about whether he should sign up for college classes and/or go get his drivers license. Aside from his good qualities, it is very frustrating and queer to have to deal with a man that can't lead. The only reason I haven't considered letting him go is because I think this may not really be him, it may be environmental (culture he was taught etc.) or that he is just young. But I am afraid that he is like this simply because we have incompatible personalities and that with another woman he wouldn't be like this. When I was really angry at him for stuff a long time ago, I was convinced that he had turned homo. Everything is an ordeal with him. He asks me to come visit him for a week then acts like I'm inviting myself when I ask him to tell me a date because I have to plan my schedule.

I'm not talking about the kind of dominance that is repressive or whatnot, perhaps dominant isn't a good word. What I mean is that I can only have complete satisfaction when he is confidant and takes charge, to put it in a nutshell. He is always questioning himself to me and he acts unsure. Its not that I mind that he is like that, it's just that it is exhausting and I feel like it's more healthy for the man to be the supporting, leading one. I'm just wondering if it's because he is slightly younger than me and that males are less mature than females at that age or just that we have incompatibilities in some areas that can't be dealt with. What I'm talking about here is not silly get in the kitchen stuff, its just pretty important to me to feel emotionally supported. I need a mate that reassures me and knows what to do when I'm in a bad situation, not confuse me further with "I don't know" stuff.

Hello everyone, I'd rather not state my real name because of privacy issues but I am a 19 year old college student, and fairly recently (within the last few months or so) I've decided that objectivism is really what I want to believe in. I have really always accepted objectivism, but wasn't quite aware such a thing existed and didn't have a technical understanding of it. Since childhood, I have always had an entrepeneurial spirit and was highly imaginative. I came up with wild ideas for stories, businesses, inventions, art, and even layout plans for buildings. I won writing contests and started little childhood businesses (and would scoff at having to collect sales tax hehe). I didn't like other children very much but felt great satisfaction from drawing up conversations with adults. In other words, I have always had the drive to create and profit from the inner workings of my imagination. As a child I wrote many stories and would often spend hours doing so and at age 8 I had decided that I wanted to be a writer. So, here I am at 19 in the process of perfecting the outline and layout for my first book. I just hope I can create something that will convey my themes deeply that is all the while entertaining and compelling. It has been an interesting road to my discovery of objectivism. From childhood restlessness to a troubled, uncertain adolescence and a transition into a seemingly strange, but mostly positive young adulthood I have always struggled to find out the truth in life about everything. But anyway, I am having some issues right now with romantic relationships. I'll always build it up in my head, this perfect image of what I want in a mate and when I actually find someone halfway decent it is very very dissapointing and frustrating. It's mostly because of personality clashes, I don't feel dominated enough and in the right way, I don't really feel secure yet free. If he is dominating enough I always feel like the child and if he is more timid I feel like an exhausted, overbearing mother. I'm beginning to wonder if it is just because I have a personality that is very hard for most people to live with (because of it's complexity) or because I imagine emotions towards me in the other person in an exagerrated way. Is this what most people go through? Am I simply struggling to find the right balance of a person for me? I have known a boy for 3 years whom I find very physically attractive but now we live far away. We are still best friends and are pursuing a relationship, but I worry that we have serious personality clashes that will make life hell later on. We are extremely drawn to each other, especially in an intellectual way and we enjoy deep satisfying laughs together but I just don't get that warm fuzzy feeling of romantic submission with him like I've gotten with other men. He can't dominate me the way I want him too, and sometimes I wonder if he is homo, immoral, depressed, manipulative, insecure, or just plain weak. Then other times he is the most handsome man in the world, loyal, supportive, a genius, and the only friend worth having. Or I start getting really paranoid and think he only wants to purue me because he knows me and not because I'm the most valuable to him.

Lol, it would have to be "balanced out" with the Karl Marx hour.

own talk radio show? It would be hilarious to listen to all the crazies that would call in that think they know everything and actually turn out to be the butt of the argument. Do you think that's something she would be interested in doing or would she be offended by the notion? It think she would probably think it was a drag but hypothetically if she did and you could call in what would you talk about? I would choose one of many topics which include food and drug regulation (ie. who is going to inspect a restaurant to make sure it is sanitary?) and What do you think of the ideals being taught in universities nowadays?

I didn't say it made any claims about it, but to an objectivist, psychological problems (such as anxiety or depression) have yet to be proven to be irreversible diseases in the body. There is a letter about it on the first page of this thread with Rand's very words on the subject.

Excuse me, but I do not imprison and/or experiment on people based on my unproven theories. BTW I am not offering only unsubstantiated opinions, if you ask any psychiatrist about the causes of mental illness, they will say things like, "We don't know as much as we should." Many of the things I said were based on fact, you can look them up and discover them yourself if you so please, but I don't see the point in putting a link when you can do your own research and find that the things I'm saying do have truth in them. Otherwise I will clearly state, "IMO..." Most of my opinions are based on personal experiences or observances, I am only putting them out there for the sake of clarification of where I'm coming from. I do not wish to force my opinions on anyone else, I just think what I think. Ayn Rand had plenty of opinions herself, such as that homosexuals are psychologically immoral. But did she believe there should be means to forcefully prevent it? No.

There is evidence that DSM disorders do exist, but they are not proven to exist. Just because there are some common physical symptoms among people with supposed depression, doesn't prove that they behavior or thoughts are really part of a disease. They really cannot diagnose someone based only on symptoms. They have to be able to measure the imbalance somehow, like through a blood test to even start to make it a real science. I personally believe that most mental disorders are not illnesses at all, just individual personalities and tendencies society dislikes for whatever reason that are influenced by the person's inner drive or sense of life (ie. supposed bipolar people are usually very spirited). Teachers dislike the fact that some kids are disruptive and don't pay attention, and BAM ADHD is the new hip diagnosis. It's all about changing someone's unique ability to reason so that they behave in a certain way. Things like alzheimers, autism, and mental retardation are all very real medical conditions though.

If I were going to take time out of my busy day to multi quote for a person who simply doesn't pay attention carefully to what I'm saying, I would have already done it. No one is forcing you to read it, so either read it or don't. You say that I need to provide evidence for my CLAIMS? I did not claim anything that isn't already obvious, such as that the existance of mental illnesses have not been proven yet. I suppose you would have to disagree with Rand on that one. My opinions do not have to have evidence, because they are just my opinions and I would never state an opinion of mine (or of anyone else's for that matter) like it was a fact. If you want to investigate my thoughts on a particular subject, YOU NEED TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. There is no law against making claims without evidence anyway. I can tell you I have not said anything out of thin air that I didn't have some kind of specific, factual reason for saying. You ask me how I can be an objectivist and make claims without evidence but how can you possibly be an objectivist and believe that insanity is proven to be a sickness in the body? A good example of careless diagnosing of patients is in a documentary called "The Medicated Child." You can look it up on youtube. There are some examples of it in there, but not all are particularely careless. IMO, the psychiatric method of diagnosing a person is in itself devoid of rationality for many reasons, but mostly because it closes people up. If you don't understand the causes for something, you can't possibly know whether what you are doing to a person is helpful or hurtful. For example, if a supposed "schizophrenic" hears voices in their head that tell them negative things about themselves and they were actually just hearing their own thoughts, telling them they are schizophrenic and that they can't help it might actually reinforce the problem.

Oh yes, in a way mental illness is to psychiatry as heresy is to the inquisition. It certainly would benefit the patient to have full rights. Especially since when they cannot involuntarily commit people and must be responsible for their actions, their treatments would be much more accurate and safer for the patient since truly helping them would be their primary concern (not bullshitting diseases to get insurance money). Most of the common "mental illnesses" nowadays could be solved by traditional therapy and a healthier lifestyle, but they don't want people to know that. And also a lot of times there is something going on in the body that is doing something to the mind. Some thyroid problems for example, can produce pseudo bipolar like behavior.

I was not speaking for her exactly, I was estimating what position she might take based on objectivism and things she had already said. So what if she took something that was like psychiatric medication? I am talking about the state of mental health nowadays which is for some people emotionally abusive, physically and psychologically damaging, and unproven. Psychiatrists had to make involuntary commitment laws so that people would be part of their experiments and come up with the chemical imbalance theory so they could have absolute power over a person if necessary (not saying chemicals don't effect the brain). I do not object to psychiatry as a voluntary branch of medicine, but there can be no special "involuntary commitment" laws of any kind and children cannot be treated for something with unknown causes and that is not fully proven to exist. The idea is to have the proper scientific knowledge before you experiment on people. I am also for the legalization of all drugs, but not for use on children because children are naive and their brain hasn't matured enough. Thus, they can't decide whether they want to take the risk of medicating themselves (not just psychiatric of course), so it WOULD have to be illegal to give a child a drug and not consult a doctor, because stupid and/or abusive parents could definitely hurt a child that way. IMO psychiatric drugs should never be prescribed for children, because they were not intended for children in the first place, and they have very different effects on a young brain than they would on an adult brain. They cannot and should not be able to use children with behavioral problems as guinea pigs in studies when there is so little proof of their so called "mental illness." (ie. now they believe children who have a lot of fits are bipolar and other nonsense) I am not saying the advancements in neurology are not worth something, but psychiatry is not in that the act of forcing and/or brainwashing a person to believe their behavior is part of a mental illness will make them "get better." It is also not proven that people who are diagnosable under the DSM behave in a way that effects them negatively. Lets make up an example to clarify what I mean. John is 15 years old and he has some mood swings; these make him very productive at some moments and very lazy at others. Under DSM standards, he has bipolar I. When he is in a productive (or manic) mood he gets much more done than the average person and when he is in a low mood he gets less done than the average person. He has a supposed unrealistic view of himself, but one day he becomes a CEO, wins a competitiion, or makes a new discovery. How can a psychiatrist or doctor say that his brain chemistry is an illness rather than an abberation of what's normal? They did used to say that some mental illnesses are toxic to the brain, but this is a dead end that has never been proven.

Of course, but you cannot say that these hallucinations are necessarily part of a medical condition unless there is the proof. I don't THINK they always are part of a disease, they could occur from sleep deprivation, malnutrution, and other things like that. Just like Ayn said, to prove that certain states of mind are an irreversible medical condition, you would have to consider a painstakingly complex combination of factors. There is no reason why someone couldn't be irrational and/or delusional just for the sake of being so, rather than having major misfires in the brain. And even if mental disorders were absolutely proven to be the result of brain diseases, you still couldn't force someone to undergo physical treatments, just as you couldn't with chemotherapy. But I agree with Ayn, if someone commits a crime and is also unable to reason, then they must be held in a place where they can't act on their demented behavior.

You need not look at any special links, just look at any label for an antidepressant or other psychotropic drug. You will see many words like "believed" and "thought to be." Or listen to the words of Dr. Timothy Johnson on "Bipolar disorder" and see how obsurd it sounds.