The "Pharmaceutical Human"--better living through chemistry
When I was a child, "The Six Million Dollar Man" (and his companion high-dollar woman) were all the rage on the elementary school playground.Now our national hero appears to be morphing into the Pharmaceutical Human, James Gorman argues in The New York Times, as people embrace the ability to shape who they are through the use of psychiatric medications.
Gorman calls it "a social change on the same order as the advent of computers, but one that is taking place inside the human body."
The implications--social, biological, environmental--are enormous, as Gorman describes in his essay. But there are spiritual implications as well.
What does it mean, for example, to influence personality, prayer, and relationships through psychiatric medications?
How do we account for these changes within an emerging theological anthropology?
How are we to understand the role of such medications in relation to God's presence and activity in the world?
How do pastoral caregivers help people take such medications prayerfully [rather than automatically or resentfully]?
These questions are important to me because I increasingly encounter parishioners, counselees, and spiritual directees who are engaging what it means to use or rely on psychiatric drugs. [In fact, several days ago I took a late-night phone call from a man upset that (a) he's been prescribed psychiatric drugs that will alter who he is and (b) he's being treated for depression rather than ADHD.]
I've yet to see rigorous, theological reflection on the role, purpose, implications, and responsible stewardship of Wellbutrin, Adderall, and other psychiatric medications. But such thinking is sorely needed by pastoral caregivers "in the trenches"--and especially by people of faith who are wrestling with what it means to become Pharmaceutical Men and Women.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, April 08, 2004
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