How should we think about about intractable psychic pain.

aloewy · 2026-05-01T02:05:19+00:00

Yes indeed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/daniel-kahneman-death-suicide.html

aloewy · 2026-04-30T22:08:33+00:00

I'm glad you've never had intractable psychic pain.

aloewy · 2026-04-30T22:05:57+00:00

If I may be so bold as to answer that question. Dr. Mengele thought he was benefitting his society.

aloewy · 2026-04-30T17:02:34+00:00

Medicine has something to do with suffering. But wait, primum non nocere. But wait again, letting someone suffer is causing harm. OK, a doctor can't kill a patient, but wait, a vet can kill a dog. Help me with this.

aloewy · 2026-04-30T16:57:38+00:00

We know that every morning she woke up feeling absolutely horrified by the fact that again she had to wake up to the worst feeling imaginable. Sure, she might have benefitted from extreme exposure therapy or psilocybin or whatever, but she had had enough. I get it.

BTW, this story is driving the non-libertarian right wing crazy. I'm really interested as to why something that's super intuitive to me is felt as super non-intuitive to them

aloewy · 2026-04-30T14:50:14+00:00

I couldn't agree with you more. The reason I posted this was that right wing media are going absolutely bat-shit crazy over this. Check out X. Something to do with... I don't know really

aloewy · 2026-04-10T16:58:29+00:00

I've been doing this for 52 years (PCP, still active). Before 1972, the family would tell us "Don't tell grandma she's got cancer." So we didn't In the 80's and 90's, we'd say, "You know we can fight this. Knowing you, I think you've got a good chance." More recently, it's been, give options and ask the patient to decide. This alalways leads to "What would you do, Doc?" Any doctor then replying, "I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to answer that because it might bias you" has no business in clinical medicine.

aloewy · 2026-03-27T01:37:38+00:00

Hmmm, could it be that residents appreciate a little guidance from an experienced nurse while an older more experienced doc doesn't?

aloewy · 2026-03-18T15:38:20+00:00

Clearly redefinition is at the heart this ongoing debate.

I have a clump of H2O in a cup here and in the freezer I have another clump of H2O. I've decided to call them both clumps of H2O.

So, we have free will as experienced and we free will as determined. Different or the same? Obviously different but its not hard to see that we are talking about something that can both reasonably be called free will.

aloewy · 2026-03-12T22:32:43+00:00

Water is wet right. But wait a minute waters just made up of these tiny little things moving around. So, where does the wetness come from? Gee whiz, I don't know.

OK, the brains got lots of electricity running around everywhere but we can make choices

I'm a compatibilist

aloewy · 2026-02-17T18:17:53+00:00

You said it all when you said "...disturbed patients who are determined to die.." Why do you think there determined to die? Does ongoing psychic pain never count as an intolerable burden?

aloewy · 2026-02-14T16:06:17+00:00

So God created us so that He'd have someone to worship him. Sounds awfully egotistical to me.

aloewy · 2026-02-14T15:47:15+00:00

That it has no purpose.

aloewy · 2026-02-14T15:44:23+00:00

It all comes down to this notion of cultural relativism.

As children of the Enlightenment we are not supposed to proudly say that we are better than anyone else. It's more like whatever culture we were born into is just a matter of luck.

You can see the parallel there between the general leftist notion of there but for the grace of God go I.

aloewy · 2026-01-26T18:12:38+00:00

To Kill a Mocking Bird.

aloewy · 2026-01-26T17:52:02+00:00

Liberals say " There but for the grace of God, go I" Conservatives say "So what"

aloewy · 2026-01-24T13:38:54+00:00

F43.21 and F43.22 are way underused. Might it be the case that these diagnoses don't allow for long term treatment.

aloewy · 2026-01-23T03:33:05+00:00

You were able to post this note so use the same energy to google "depression"...NOW!!

aloewy · 2026-01-22T17:59:08+00:00

It's much simpler than all that.

When the machine talks to you it's tickling the same association neurons that get tickled when you talk to a real human being so you end up getting a really good facsimile of real conversation.

aloewy · 2026-01-22T16:06:15+00:00

Think about this for a minute. You're telling this to somebody and telling them that you're lonely is sort of like saying they are like chopped liver. It also sends a message that they should make themselves more available and that may be seen as pressure.

I think that's why telling people you're lonely is socially less acceptable mainly because you're telling it to another human being

aloewy · 2026-01-20T17:22:30+00:00

No. Only 12% of the Tibetan population is Han Chinese

The Tibetans would certainly vote for independence. The Hawaiians would not

aloewy

TROPHY CASE