[flagged]
Could also be interpreted as a sign of respect. He is special enough to be referred to by the unique moniker “PKD”, he is not just some “Philip”.
A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
61–70 of 88 posts
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#62Superficial and entirely missing the mark. PKD spent years doing research trying to understand his most important mystical experience, and his extensive notes and documentation ended up in the book "exegesis" (also greatly influencing the philosophy underlying works such as Valis). None of that is of course mentioned in the article. What we get is a random psychiatrist performing armchair psychoanalysis on someone he…
Most people know nothing about what they have never experienced, naturally. Yet that doesn't stop them from taking any opportunity to share their cultured opinions on what others report.
There's a large literature 'out there' about extraordinary, inner, life-changing experiences that people have have reported and recorded throughout history. Plenty of their neglected works were re-printed in the middle of the last century - for a reason. They're easy to discover once you are motivated to look. Until then, it's easy to assume that it's they who are imbalanced.
Edit: Dick's 'Tractates: Cryptica Scriptura':
https://dickiangnosticism.wordpress.com/2017/10/28/tractates...
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#63Interesting read. Have always enjoyed Philip K Dicks novels… sadly not surprised he struggled with mental and substance abuse. His books read in a way that often feature a character somewhat removed from reality or in some form of psychosis. The idea of what is real or not real is explored over and over again. I cannot help but think he was writing from his own soul or at least his own experience. He was always the l…
Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly contains an Author's Note at the end of the book on this topic. This is the note from the copy I have: "AUTHOR'S NOTE: This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but t…
I was talking to a guy who was into drug counselling. He laid out some pretty shocking facts, like children as young as 12 take drugs. This made me absolutely convinced that we should not legalise drugs, except in the case where there legitimate medical uses.
He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. His reasoning is that it only encourages drug users.
Also, experience of using drugs is no guarantee of safe drugs practise. If anything, it's the contrary. People become complacent in what they think they can handle, which spells trouble.
Also, drug purity can vary by region. You won't know about it in advance, but if you take drugs from a less tainted batch then you usually do, then you could well be taking a much higher dosage of the drug than your body is used to. Not good.
And finally, the most chilling part of all. He said that if you were to put some heroin on a table and say that this is the purest heroin on the market. You can take it, but knowing you will die. Many would still take it.
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#64Robert Crumb depicted PKD's religious experience in comic book form, here is a link: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/02/07/r-crumb-weirdo-phi...
Wow. It’s terrifying how he says he wasn’t psychotic, while clearly describing psychosis. I didn’t realize how messed up he was.
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly contains an Author's Note at the end of the book on this topic. This is the note from the copy I have: "AUTHOR'S NOTE: This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but t…
I was talking to a guy who was into drug counselling. He laid out some pretty shocking facts, like children as young as 12 take drugs. This made me absolutely convinced that we should not legalise drugs, except in the case where there legitimate medical uses. He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. His reasoning is that…
Legalizing drugs can actually reduce number of kids taking drugs. Because you can require shops to ask for ID. Back street dealers won't.
I think people often imagine legalizing drugs means there will be heroin ads in TV. But you can legalize them and still regulate them heavily (no ads, only sell to adults, require warnings on the packaging, finance anti-drug campaigns from the sales taxes, etc.).
Portugal legalized drugs long ago and their drug problems seemed to get a lot better since.
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#66Robert Crumb depicted PKD's religious experience in comic book form, here is a link: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/02/07/r-crumb-weirdo-phi...
You'd think after reading so many of his books and stories you would know a person, this work from Crumb really shows how fiction writers often express themselves in unique ways that manage to keep themselves still private, somehow.
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly contains an Author's Note at the end of the book on this topic. This is the note from the copy I have: "AUTHOR'S NOTE: This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but t…
I was talking to a guy who was into drug counselling. He laid out some pretty shocking facts, like children as young as 12 take drugs. This made me absolutely convinced that we should not legalise drugs, except in the case where there legitimate medical uses. He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. His reasoning is that…
I would uhhh.. take what he said with a grain of salt
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly contains an Author's Note at the end of the book on this topic. This is the note from the copy I have: "AUTHOR'S NOTE: This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but t…
I was talking to a guy who was into drug counselling. He laid out some pretty shocking facts, like children as young as 12 take drugs. This made me absolutely convinced that we should not legalise drugs, except in the case where there legitimate medical uses. He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. His reasoning is that…
> He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. ... Also, drug purity can vary by region. You won't know about it in advance, but if you take drugs from a less tainted batch then you usually do, then you could well be taking a much higher dosage of the drug than your body is used to. Not good.
This would all be improved by legalization and regulation. Nobody dies because a Bud Light is suddenly a lot stronger in one region than another.
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#69"substance abuse" is such a weird term.
Why?
Re: A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it though? The word "abuse" is pretty strong. If I'm abusing substances it's not like I'm just having a puff now and then do I? The term "substance" is a bit generic, I grant you that. But does that make it an euphemism just because the exact substance is not specified?
>If I'm abusing substances it's not like I'm just having a puff now and then do I? we can agree on that, but the phrase has been bandied around in the legal/law-enforcement community enough that it's clear that the definition is generally : if it's illegal, it's always abuse. If it's legal it's only abuse if Uncle Bob is nodding off at x-mas dinner and stumbling into the tree. There seems to be a strong inclination t…
Sure. My point is that this is not what an euphemisms is.
An euphemism is a mild word substituted for what you'd consider a harsh word.
What you're describing is the use of a harsh word to reference a specific thing that is frowned upon by sole group and they don't want to use a too loaded word to protect themselves from being labeled bigots or whatnot.
Consider this:
A blind person can be called visually impaired. That's an euphemism. There do exist visually impaired people who are not blind. Technically a blind person is also visually impaired. Calling a blind person visually impaired is a way to soften the language.
On the other hand, if every time you say "visually impaired" you only mean "blind" and all the non-blind people that are nevertheless visually impaired you no longer call them visually impaired, then that's no longer an euphemism, but the word just changed the meaning (as words do, often through the mechanism of euphemisms).
For examples "odour" is not an euphemism nowadays, although when the word got borrowed from french it was