Friday, July 17, 2009

The Monkey's Dilemma


So it's an op-ed piece in the New York Times called The Meaning of Life and Roger Cohen speculates on all sorts of things in a monkey's world: food and deprivation, happiness and longevity, caloric deprivation and bitterness, and quality versus quantity of life.

It's an Op-Ed piece, it's not a scientific study, though Mr. Cohen is pretty certain that the calorie-deprived monkeys in the study who lived longer were not the happy ones. There's Owen the well-fed primate and Canto who's I don't usually like speculation-- can we give the Monkey an MDI (Monkey Depression Inventory: Roy get on it!)?

"Which brings me to low-cal Canto and high-cal Owen: Canto looks drawn, weary, ashen and miserable in his thinness, mouth slightly agape, features pinched, eyes blank, his expression screaming, “Please, no, not another plateful of seeds!”

Well-fed Owen, by contrast, is a happy camper with a wry smile, every inch the laid-back simian, plump, eyes twinkling, full mouth relaxed, skin glowing, exuding wisdom as if he’s just read Kierkegaard and concluded that “Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward.”"

And why are monkeys on our psychiatry blog? Mr. Cohen goes on to write:

"My mother died of cancer at 69. Her father lived to 98, her mother to 104. I said my mother died of cancer. But that’s not true. She was bipolar and depression devastated her. What took her life was misery.

We don’t understand what the mind secretes. The process of aging remains full of enigma. But I’d bet on jovial Owen outliving wretched Canto."

I'll leave it at that.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

""My mother died of cancer at 69. Her father lived to 98, her mother to 104. I said my mother died of cancer. But that’s not true. She was bipolar and depression devastated her. What took her life was misery."

As an aside, thank you for allowing diverse viewpoints. It is very much appreciated after witnessing another mental health site operate in a different manner.

Anyway, this particular exert hits a hot button of mine so warning, a rant is coming:).

Personally, I am getting tired of all unexplained or early deaths being attributed to depression. My cousin died very young from cancer and had a very positive attitude. It didn't prevent her death.

Another relative died at 93 and let's just say this person didn't have the most positive attitude.

Also, the mother who died of cancer at 69 could have had adverse side effects from the meds that led to cancer. It is very frustrating that that gets minimized since the average lifespan of someone with a mental health diagnosis is 25 years less than the average person.

I am too lazy to find the citation that shows that drugs may be a factor but I can if someone wants it.

Regarding the calorie restrictions of the one monkey, that would be very depressing for anyone. If you didn't get depressed from that something is wrong with you:)

I am concerned that when events like this happen, that there is no critical analysis and too much acceptance on blaming depression for everything.

Anyway, thanks for allowing anonymous comments.

AA

Dinah said...

AA--

I hope no one's minimizing early death associated with mental illness-- it's a fact that gets mentioned a lot. I had never thought of it as 'depression' causes death, but as some other unknown linkage--- My guess is that the higher rates of smoking (often 2-3 packs/day) are part of that picture.

I thought of it as an op-ed piece, not science and Roger Cohen predicts the happier, well-fed monkey will live longer but the actual study was that deprived monkeys acted younger/ lived longer?

He says "My mother died of cancer at 69. ....What took her life was misery." I thought he was, in the second sentence, differentiating "life" from 'being alive" but I could have just had my own idiosyncratic quirk on this.

Dr X said...

"He says "My mother died of cancer at 69. ....What took her life was misery." I thought he was, in the second sentence, differentiating "life" from 'being alive" but I could have just had my own idiosyncratic quirk on this."

That's how I took it, as well. He didn't mean that bipolar disorder killed her physically--cancer did. He meant that her misery robbed her of a life. That's how I understood him...at first.

But then, it seemed, he went on to equate depression with early physical death when he bet on the high-cal monkey outliving the calorie-restricted monkey. Then, I wasn't so sure about what he meant when he spoke of his mother.

You're right about where the actual study is pointing. Although both monkeys are still alive, the cal-restricted monkey is not aging normally. He is unusually youthful.

Anonymous said...

I made my self thro up 3 times to nite. I want to be the slim monkey. Fat and happy are incompatable. Why can't I be the normal monkey?