Re:Origins of the myth of dopamine as the ‘pleasure chemical’
by api on Sunday April 15, 2018 @11:42AM
(#16843118)
Amphetamine is fascinating in both a good and a bad way. Low to moderate doses seem to be performance enhancers for many people, but high doses and abuse can be incredibly destructive both to the self and... others... and in curious ways.
Psychedelics inspire more fascination and so more has been written about them. Too little has been written on the large effects that dopamine based stimulants have had on history. They seem to at times inspire people to make huge forceful decisions. They can be very good or very bad but they're always very big.
On one end: Hitler and the Nazis used a ton of meth, and it was likely how starting a war on two fronts and the holocaust seemed like good ideas. "Blitzkreig" just feels like "methkreig" to me.
On the other end look up "Dr. Feelgood" and other less well known "amphetamine doctors" of the 50s-70s and the many notable people they treated. Among these are JFK, and I've wondered about this and how it might relate specifically to the famous "we choose to go to the moon and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard."
It's a subject that awaits several very big books to anyone interested in investigating it.
Psychedelics inspire more fascination and so more has been written about them. Too little has been written on the large effects that dopamine based stimulants have had on history. They seem to at times inspire people to make huge forceful decisions. They can be very good or very bad but they're always very big.
On one end: Hitler and the Nazis used a ton of meth, and it was likely how starting a war on two fronts and the holocaust seemed like good ideas. "Blitzkreig" just feels like "methkreig" to me.
On the other end look up "Dr. Feelgood" and other less well known "amphetamine doctors" of the 50s-70s and the many notable people they treated. Among these are JFK, and I've wondered about this and how it might relate specifically to the famous "we choose to go to the moon and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard."
It's a subject that awaits several very big books to anyone interested in investigating it.