Madam, - It's obvious from Paul O'Donoghue's letter regarding depression (July 9th) that he is an apologist for the chemical brain theorists. In other words, the pharmaceutical companies who make billions each year on the utterly debunked premise that emotional problems are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. One does not have an emotional problem through lack of Prozac.
The chemical brain theory was first postulated by 19th century psychiatrists who were themselves atheist and brutal in their treatment of mentally ill patients. They didn't believe that man was a spirit or that his emotional disposition could be anything other than genes or chemicals.
They were experimenting with potions that were used by shamanism and druidism to induce altered states of consciousness. This is the basis of modern mental healthcare - the widespread use of powerful narcotics like Prozac and Xanax, etc.
There is no full clinical evidence that chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression and that the use of medications like this has done anything other than alter the person's state, not to actually cure him or her. Previous psychiatric "wonder drugs" have included lysergic acid, otherwise known as LSD and speed, which was developed to recondition schizophrenics. Talking and counselling will always be a better way to eventually achieve a betterment holistically in the person without having to resort to potions and altered consciousness. - Yours, etc.,
DERMOT RYAN, Citizens' Commission on Human Rights, New Street, Dublin 8.