I also don't agree with your interpretation of what the article is trying to paint Sacks as, though of course you are entitled to it.

I think the the point of the article is to articulate what Sacks himself said:

> "As Sacks aged, he felt as if he were gazing at people from the outside. But he also noticed a new kind of affection for humans—“homo sap.” “They’re quite complex (little) creatures (I say to myself),” he wrote in his journal. “They suffer, authentically, a good deal. Gifted, too. Brave, resourceful, challenging.”"

SRRI efficacy for one - The nature of SSRIs is that they are highly effective for some patients and useless/detrimental to others. This does not lend itself well to traditional measures of effect size. For those in the comments pointing out SSRIs low effect size, note that the effect size of morphine for pain is only 0.4 (SSRIs score 0.3). For instance, drugs that significantly improve 60-100% of patients are clinically insignificant under various guidelines. I can expound upon the various methodological reasons this is the case if there is interest.

This is not to say that SSRIs are good. There is no doubt they are overprescribed, have underdiscussed side effects, and are barely understood by their prescribers. I was severely depressed with suicidal ideation since I was 6 years old until I was young adult. I have pored over the psychiatric scientific literature for many years now, and I will say that understanding the sociological reasons for depression was much more effective at helping me than learning about the biological or pharmacological aspects. If you are in a similar position, I cannot recommend enough reading Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters as a starting point.

The son being an NPR correspondent and the mother moving out of their room on the day after Trump's election is highly indicative of this. To the author's credit, he is somewhat aware of this and mentions it in the article.

See:

Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X2...

I would also wager it has to do with increasing social and economic stratification and decreasing homogeneity.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39215473

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It is absolutely not clear-cut that poverty has actually decreased on a long term scale. The real wage evidence shows less poverty and higher incomes during precolonial times in several countries. The datasets are woefully incomplete and flawed prior to 1900. Furthermore, the global poverty line is still set at $1.90 (!), and reexaming the decrease in poverty using more realistic costs of living results in very little change. Compounding on that, the vast majority of poverty reduction in the last century has been in China, a non-capitalist country. Removing them from the dataset results in almost no change in global poverty in the last 50 years. I can go on.