Word: solomonic
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...know the Biblical tale of King Solomon and the baby: Two women come to the King, each claiming to be the mother of a squealing infant laid before him. Solomon looks at them and says, Okay, I'll cut the kid in two and you can each have half. The first woman says, "Fine, thanks," and the second bursts into tears and pleads with the king to give the baby to her rival. Solomon, of course, hands the baby to the second woman, knowing that she was the true birth mother. It?s a classic example of Solomon?s proverbial...
...modern twist on that tale. What if you brought an embryo before Solomon today and asked him to choose between two interested parties, each of whom wanted to claim the embryo for its own? In this case, the first party would be religious conservatives who say that the government should not fund stem cell research because it involves the taking of incipient human life. The second would be scientists and their backers, who see the embryo not as human life, but as the encapsulation of the staggering potential of stem cell research to cure and treat disease...
...these confessional times, it would have been easy for Solomon to limit himself to a personal memoir. But he uses his story as a springboard for a wide-ranging discussion about depression. Prozac is especially popular, he explains, not so much for its efficacy as for its safety and comparatively minimal side-effects. The most successful physical treatment, he says, is the "least clean and specific" of all: electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT. He criticizes the powerful Veterans Administration for spending less than 12% of its research budget on psychiatry, when mental disorders may be the biggest problem for American veterans...
...Most moving of all is Solomon's portrayal of the pain of others in different cultures and classes. In Cambodia, he is "humbled to the ground" by the story of Phaly Nuon, forced to watch as her 12-year-old daughter was gang-raped and murdered by the Khmer Rouge. She came through the darkness by "forgetting, loving, working" and now helps others do the same. He visits Greenland, where depression affects as much as 80% of the population. Yet the Inuits' taboo against "being a cloud in the sky for other people" prevents them from seeking help. Solomon...
...Since his first breakdown, Solomon has suffered two relapses, one while writing this book. Depression is "always there, waiting in the wings." Yet he has learned to embrace his suffering, citing the Russian proverb that "if you wake up feeling no pain, you know you're dead." Depression has taught him "what it means to be human, what is good in being human." It has allowed him to come to terms with his terminally ill mother's suicide and forced him to confront his confusion over his sexuality. Solomon apologizes that "no book can span the reach of human suffering...