Black or Red?

Spent today tidying up some bits and pieces - and then trying to get my head around all the ins and outs of basic website development. Aaargh! Mate at work had sussed the forum side of things long before I had even picked a template for one of the quick and dirty ready built things.

Anyhooo...

Was good to waken up to the radio discussing mental health issues this morning. You know the kind of debate where scientific developments are reviewed... and then dismissed on the basis that, as humans, we are so much more than simply biochemical machines? Never heard that one before... NOT!

Why is it such a struggle to for people to try and understand the way our brains work in terms of both biology (nature) and behaviour (nurture)? Why do we need this dichotomous relationship to persist?

In part it seems to be about religious belief, but is it any more remarkable that it works just because some chemicals are involved? Is this really a challenge to religion? Let's face it, if we can explain evolution away with the wave of a creationists wand, what damage can a few molecules of dopamine and 5HT do?

Seems to me that every time the anti mechanistic explanation has reared it's ugly head in the media over the past hundred years or so, mental health in the UK has been facing periods of financial stringency - and guess which area of health provision usually suffers most at these times? Nothing like a little bit of fear and paranoia to whip up some anti-psychiatric fervour I think. Justifies cutting back on the overall spend on mental health services too. All in all a good day at the office for any newly appointed health minister with a budget to trim down.

Just thinking out loud though. I'm sure conspiracy theories like the above are furthest from the thoughts of our esteemed, democratically appointed leaders.

The image: black and red - when I wasn't ranting I also cleaned up one of the lads cameras for a project I'm involved with - and the perfume bottle mirrored the shape nicely. Two wildly different things - or two things with a whole heap of similarities? You can be the judge.