Tesseractcubed t1_iytpg0a wrote on December 4, 2022 at 2:09 AM

This hits close to home, is well written, and from my perspective asks questions other philosophical ideals haven’t or aren’t able to answer.

My most pressing questions regarding the issues presented relate to the identity of the mind as a whole: is it entirely the conscious, subconscious, or unconscious; or a blend of the three? With the latter most likely being the case, is Hannibal essential to Moloch, and is Moloch essential to Hannibal? If the conscious motivates action in one direction, but the subconscious motivates action in the opposite, is the individual as a whole responsible, or are others responsible for making a decision towards one or the other? In summation, how many different entities lie within one mind, and whose mind has the right or responsibility to determine which entities get preference?

In regard to the idea of having a novel framework and understanding the experience of mental illness before ethical action, is waiting unethical, even if the experience isn’t understood? I would argue that our society has said yes, treatment of some kind is better than no treatment, even if one harms more than the other unknowingly.

Like the start, nice writing.

Unity-Druid OP t1_iywb9xi wrote on December 4, 2022 at 5:57 PM

Thanks for the kind comment!

Questions about what makes an individual, and competing motivations between the conscious and subconscious, were some of the things knocking around my head while writing this, and I'm glad to hear you feel there's significant questions to be asked there.

In regard to waiting being less ethical, I agree with you, I think we have a moral responsibility to do what we can while we can do it, which is the reason I currently work in psychiatry, imperfect a science as it is. That said, the difference between a world with less suffering, and a world free from suffering, will come down largely to advances in our theories of mind, so while we shouldn't pause psychiatry to study the mind, the study of the mind should really be asking more and better questions.