Some thoughts on medication
To begin, I'll first state that by the term "body," I mean all our physical matter and attributes: from the toenail on your big toe to the synapses and neurons in your brain. And as it is physical and organic matter, it is therefore temporary, and used only until it is discarded. By the "soul," I mean that mechanism which is me, and which is you: consciousness as we know it and the manner in which it reacts to stimuli in the material world and to other souls. The "mind" is therefore a unifying term of body and soul, the apparatus held within our skulls that is operated by the soul and utilizes the body for the enactment of our wills.
Given those definitions, and I think that they are widely perceived as correct to one extent or another, to what point does the pharmacology of the mind deal with our souls? Drugs like adderall help us focus and, as reported by some, provide motivation where previously none existed. Medecine such as Zoloft, Prozac, and Welbutrin provide reprieve from depression and sadness; some have even reported that antidepressants like those mentioned increases their confidence and decisiveness. We generally resolve the effects of these drugs by suggesting that they are medecine for the mind. But the mind is just a term to describe the single entity which is soul and body. Emotions, as I have understood, and even confidence and decisiveness are attributed to personality, and therefore to the soul. Is this what these medications are really modifying, then? Or are they simply modifying that object by which the soul percieves the world, the body? And if, after death, the body dies but the soul is left behind, what is that to suggest about post-life existence? Do our souls really lack the capacity for motivation, obligation, emotion, and confidence? At our cores, are we nothing more than an engine that drives the body, an element in its mechanics in the same way that physical energy is an element of machinery? What is the soul if it lacks just those things that define it?
Don't think too hard about it.
Given those definitions, and I think that they are widely perceived as correct to one extent or another, to what point does the pharmacology of the mind deal with our souls? Drugs like adderall help us focus and, as reported by some, provide motivation where previously none existed. Medecine such as Zoloft, Prozac, and Welbutrin provide reprieve from depression and sadness; some have even reported that antidepressants like those mentioned increases their confidence and decisiveness. We generally resolve the effects of these drugs by suggesting that they are medecine for the mind. But the mind is just a term to describe the single entity which is soul and body. Emotions, as I have understood, and even confidence and decisiveness are attributed to personality, and therefore to the soul. Is this what these medications are really modifying, then? Or are they simply modifying that object by which the soul percieves the world, the body? And if, after death, the body dies but the soul is left behind, what is that to suggest about post-life existence? Do our souls really lack the capacity for motivation, obligation, emotion, and confidence? At our cores, are we nothing more than an engine that drives the body, an element in its mechanics in the same way that physical energy is an element of machinery? What is the soul if it lacks just those things that define it?
Don't think too hard about it.