Nevrorazlični beremo - 5.

Our new view of human nature, inspired by the theory of constructed emotion, dissolves the boundaries between the mental and physical, including where illness is concerned. Old, essentialist thinking, in contrast, keeps those dividing lines sharp. Having a problem with your brain? Then see a neurologist. If the problem is with your mind, well, you need a psychiatrist. 

A more modern view integrates mind and brain and offers guidance on how better to understand human illness. For example, if you look at the diverse symptoms found in illnesses like anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and chronic stress, they don’t fit into a handful of neat compartments, like a silverware drawer. Each illness has tremendous variability, and all of their sets of symptoms have tremendous overlap. This situation should sound familiar. You’ve already learned that emotion categories like happiness and sadness have no essences; they’re made by core systems in your body and brain, in the context of other bodies  and brains. 

Now I’ll suggest that some illnesses that seem distinct are likewise constructions: human-made ways of carving up the same highly variable biological pie. A construction approach to understanding illness can answer some perplexing questions that have never been resolved. Why do so many disorders share the same symptoms? Why are so many people both anxious and depressed? Is chronic fatigue syndrome a distinct illness, or merely depression in disguise? Are people who suffer from chronic pain with no identifiable tissue damage mentally ill? And why do so many people with heart disease develop depression? If differently named illnesses are related to the same set of core causes, muddying the dividing lines between those illnesses, then such questions cease to be mysteries. 

This is the most speculative chapter in the book, but it’s informed by data, and I hope you’ll find the ideas intriguing and provocative. In the pages that follow, I demonstrate that phenomena like pain and stress, and illnesses such as chronic pain, chronic stress, anxiety, and depression, are more intertwined than you might think, and they’re constructed in the same manner as emotion. A key component of this viewpoint is a better understanding of the predictive brain and your body budget.